' A 



SONNETS AND LOVE-SONGS 



AND 



IRENE; A MEMOIR, 



BY 







GEORGE GRAHAM CURRIE. 



• :• : ••• : • 



Press of Dean Publishing Company 

WoRt Palm Beach, Florida 

1001. 






7 01 



THE UBttA&f 6f\ 

CONGRESS, I 

Two Ctwte RcocivcdI 

OCT. 3rf90?' 

OLA558 a XXa Mo. 

2/277 

COPY B. 



Entered according to Act of Congress^ in the year 

1901, by George Graham Currie, in the office 

of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



At the present moment the greatest desire of my 
life is to improve and make beautiful the cemetery in 
which Irene, my bride-wife, was laid away to rest a 
few months ago. I have already spent money, time 
and exhortation to that end, and a great deal has 
indeed been done thanks to the enterprise and earnest 
efforts of the Ladies^ Cemetery Improvement Asso- 
ciation, of West Palm Beach, of which Mesdames 
Burnham, Potter, Stowers, Yarborough and Everett 
and Miss Potter are the officers. Still it will take a 
great many more dollars than have yet been raised to 
satisfy my desire. As I have already taxed my ordi- 
nary source of income to its utmost the publication of 
this book suggested itself as a possible means by 
which I might help to swell the fund still more. The 
cost of an edition of a thousand copies has been heavy 
and to become solvent again I will have to dispose of 
at least five hundred copies. Another two hundred 
copies will have to be given away for advertising 
purposes. Yet if I can dispose of the whole edition 
the cemetery can thereby be improved to the extent 
of at least $300 and it is with that hope that I publish 
the volume. If the people of Palm Beach will con- 
tinue to help me I will not cease my endeavors until 
Lakeside Cemetery is the most beautiful burying 



ground in America and surely that is not aiming too 
high when we remember that Palm Beach is America's 
greatest winter resort. 

I have read the j)roof of the book myself in odd 
moments stolen from a busy law practice, and on 
looking over the revises I find many typographical 
errors that have slipped by me. I apologise for these 
mistakes and hope the public will not conclude from 
the number of mis-spelled words that I learned to 
spell at the same school with Josh Billings. In any 
event the blame is entirely on my own shoulders. 

In the preparation of the volume I am indebted to 
many people for many favors. I have used poems 
that were given to the Montreal Daily Star, the 
Great Falls, (Montana) Tribune, the Times-Union and 
Citizen, of Jacksonville ; the Florida Magazine, of 
Jacksonville ; the Lake AVorth News, of West Palm 
Beach, and the Homeseeker, of Miami, Florida. For 
the illustrations I am especially indebted to Miss 
Grace Lainhart, of West Palm Beach, who did the art 
work; Mrs. J. Thurston Smith, of Montreal, Canada; 
Mr. Harry Newble, of London, England ; Mr. John 
Cairns, of Dublin, Ireland ; Mr. Kobert Eeid, of 
Glasgow, Scotland, and to Mr. Fred Hand, of Miami, 
from whom I obtained the photographs. I also feel 
that my sincere thanks are due to Mr. Ben H. Doster, 
of AVest Palm Beach, and Mr. Alex 0. Sutcliffe, of 
Lockport, N. Y., for allowing me to re-publish the kind 
notices they wrote in different papers at the time of 
my wife's death. 



In conclusion I wish to say that since the copy of 
^'Sonnets^' was handed to the printer and classified I 
have composed one other that I would like to make a 
part of this publication. It is about the assassina- 
tion of Mr. McKinley and I composed it to recite at a 
memorial service held in West Palm Beach on the day 
of the deceased President's funeral. It is not cus- 
tomary to use the preface of a book for the purpose of 
filling in omissions, but in view of the importance of 
the event which the sonnet chronicles I propose to 
shock propriety in order to let my sentiments on such 
a subject be known. 

The Major gone ! Our President laid low ! 

Martyred to freedom in this freeman's land ! 

Slain by a weapon in a weakling's hand, 
While a whole nation mourns in mighty woe. 

Dead ! but still living in his people's hearts ; 

Still quick and active in the laws he planned ; 
Living in echoes from enprospered marts — 

From homes made happy by his guiding hand. 

Yes, though we've placed him in the silent tomb 
To wander listless through the realms of night ; 

His voice, still resonant, defies such doom ; — 
Hark ! Hear it calling in the cause of Right. 

Though envious error took our country's head, 
We'll long owe homage to McKinley dead. 

George Graham Cuerie. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



SONNETS. 



Assassination of Mr. McKinley 

Invocation 

Sidelights on Man 

As the Minister Sees Him 
'' Doctor '* 

'^ Lawyer " 

^' Newspaper Man Sees Him 
'' Shopkeeper 
'' Aristocrat 
' ^ Woman 
As His Friend 
" Enemy 
As Divinity 
Woman in Her Infinite Variety. 
As seen by the Poet 

" " Misogynist 

Lover 

Other Woman 
** ^^ Philosopher 



3 



10 



PAGE 

In AVestmixster Abbey 13 

Introductory, I 

England's Mighty Dead, II 

III 
Poets' Corner, IV 

Royal Tombs, V 

YI 
Finale, YII 

Democratic Doctrines 16 

All Men are Equal 

Practice what you Preach 

Are our Motives Pure ? 

Beware of Militarism 

Down with the Trusts 

Silver shall be Free 

Elect the Senate 

The Monroe Doctrine 

Levy an Income Tax 

Shall we have Peace— or War ? 

When Other Leaders Fail 

Ponce de Leon's Mistake 22 

Florida's Epitaph on Flagler 23 

Canadian Themes 24 

Canada 

Farewell 

AVell Done 

Awake ! my Countrymen 

Our Hero Brotliers 

By the (jrave of Louis Riel 

vi 



PAGR 

My Choice of Cities 28 

The One I Love 28 

To Edwin H. Lemare, organist 29 

On Tara at Sunrise 30 

I 
II 

Glasgow University 31 

To my Only Sister 32 

Annie Besant, the orator 

Death 33 

Life 34 

Love 

Forgiven 35 

Sympathy 36 

Solitude 

Mock Modesty 37 

Cruelty 38 

Remorse 

^ Poverty 39 

Travel 40 

Odysseus 

Heroism 41 

Patriotism 42 

Science 

Truth 43 

History 44 

Consistency 

Friendship 45 

To my Mistress' Eyebrow 46 

Home 227 

vii 



LOVE SONGS. 



PAGB 



Lily and the Angel, an allegory 4S 

Earth Imprisoned by Winter 

Earth Becomes the Bride of Spring 

The Birth of Lily, Pansy and Eose 

The Wooing of Eose by Summer 

The Wooing of Pansy by Autumn 

Lily and the Angel 

A Dream of Fair Women 61 

My Love 63 

A too One-sided Poet 64 

Jealousy's First Pang 65 

And so She's Wed 68 

While I am With Celia 66 

Memories of Millacoma 71 

The Storm King 72 

The Soul of Beauty 73 

Fancy's Vagaries 74 

That is All 75 

But She is My Cousin 76 

The Old Old Story 77 

The Lover's Farewell 78 

Two Darling Loves 78 

I Linger Still 80 

Happy at Last 81 

The Jilted Maid's Lament 82 

I Love You 88 

Zetulba 84 



vin 



I'AGE 

Moments of Musing 85 

*In a Song Book 87 

Western Zephyrs 88 

Only Some Violets 89 

Deserted 90 

Lovers Dream is O'er 90 

To One I Love 91 

Was it a Proof 92 

Doubt 94 

Old Words to a New Tune 95 

The Dawn of Hope 96 

*Their Yankee Doodle Do 96 

A Lesson in Grammar 97 

Placentia Bay 98 

The Secret 100 

Tessie Casey 101 

Love on a Eanch 102 

Hopeless Love 103 

Little Kathy Kind Heart 104 

Maggie Thorp 105 

nVords to the Wise / 106 

The St. Francis 107 

A Maiden's Song. . 108 

*Not Concise Enough 109 

My Dilemma 110 

Poetic License Ill 

Religion vs. Love 112 

A Study 114 

*Katy on Dudes 115 

The Skugog 116 

♦Epigrams. 

ix 



Beaiity^s Conquest 118 

Poor Dolly's 111 119 

If I had a Daughter Like You 120 

The Politics of Love 121 

Flora's Mistake 122 

*He Didn't Catch her MeEning 123 

*^An Ironical Escort 123 

Darling I have Dreamed of Thee 124 

A Bachelor's Leap Year Lament 125 

My Little Sweetheart Maud 126 

Our Vacant Chair 127 

Wild Alberta 128 

*AHint 128 

nVhat's in a Name 128 

Elf rida Pyke 129 

The Evolution of Nobility 135 

The Iron Age 

The Brazen Age 

The Golden Age 

Love 136 

*0f Course he Didn't Mind 137 

To Be or Not to Be 138 

God Knows Best 141 

Drifting AVith the Tide 142 

^Subdued 143 

The Setting Sun 144 

Rejected Love 145 

*Osculation 145 

A Song of the AVaUz 146 

Country Matters 147 

♦Epigrams. 



*He's Married Though 148 

An Autobiography 148 

*Nil Desperandum 149 

The Typewriter Girl 150 

The Boardin' Missis' Smile 152 

I'm Going to Wed a Princess 15-3 

*Technical Terms 1^6 

*Let There be Light 156 

^Cruelty, Thy Name is Man 156 

How Times Have Changed 157 

^Thoughts 157 

Sunday in Hyde Pakk 158 

Morning 

Afternoon 

Evening 

*High Ideals 159 

Cupid's Directory 160 

*For Scriptural Reasons 162 

Catalina 163 

(The story of Santa Catalina Island.) 
The Strange Musician 169 

Mount Royal 

Despair 

Hypnotised by Music 

Happy Childhood 

Ambitious Boyhood 

Chums 

Travel 

Love 

Moral 



♦Epigrams. 

xi 



Ikexe — A Memoir 183 

AVhere Cecelia Dwells 186 

Break, Break Sad Heart 189 

To My Muse , 194 

My Only Plea 198 

I AVill be True 199 

My Friend Jack 201 

There is Music in My Heart 203 

I AVant to be With You Always 205 

The Speechlessness of Love 206 

An Inscription 208 

Cast up by the Sea 209 

Carry a High Ideal 213 

Nature's Comforters 315 

The One I Love 217 

Miami's Great Show^ 219 

The Grounds Around Fort Dallas 222 

The Lovely Irene — a toast 224 

Home 227 

Keep Climbing 228 

The Oversoul 245 

In toleration 246 

In Memory of Irene 251 

Elegy on the Death of a Wife 257 

The Land of the Kising Sun 260 

Engraved on a Monument 262 

Epitaph on Irene ?63 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



1 Westminster Abbey, front view. 

2 " " side view. 

3 " "in Poets Corner. *^ 

4 " ■ " " " No. 2. ' 

5 Tara Hill, Ireland. 

6 The Village of Tara. 

7 Glasgow University. - 

8 Edinburgh. ■-, 

9 Montreal, w 

10 A View on Mount Royal. 

11 Irene. 

12 A View from Oleander Avenue, Palm Beach. 

13 The Grounds Around Fort Dallas, Miami. ^ 

14 Our Home, West Palm Beach. 

15 Whitehall and Hotel Royal Poinciana. 

16 Irene's Grave, Lakeside Cemetery. . 



INVOCATION. 



Genius of Minstrelsy ! Spirit of Song ! 

My life — my all — are consecrate to thee. 

With thy sweet winsome grace envelop me ; 
Make me thine own for I have loved thee long. 
I do not ask to marshal conquering band 

To victory or to fame-enlaureled tomb ; 

I ask no riches ; I could face my doom 
Though poverty stalked round on every hand ; 
But God can witness how I fain would sing : 

A note of comfort to the aching heart ; 

A chord of hope no misery could thwart ; 

A tune to lead gay youth in guileless dance ; 

A lullaby for age of lifers romance ; — 
A song celestial crowning honor KING. 



SIDE LIGHTS ON MAN. 



(1) As Seen by The Minister. 

Dear Christian brothers who before me sit 
Dressed up arid aching in the pink of style, 
AVho when I weep weep with me and who smile 

With equal mimicry when I see fit : 

It gives me pleasure in my humble way 
To thank you for the holiness you don 
When I am with you. I can bear your yawn 

Eemembering that through it truth makes display. 

When you are young — ere yet temptations sue — 
Perchance I sometimes see your inmost heart ; 
And sometimes, too, when Death his awful dart 

Eaises to strike your terrors make you true ; 

But while the Lord lets healthy currents flow 

You are the biggest hypocrites I know. 

(2) As Seen by The Doctor. 

Poor suffering creature ! How the poet lies 

When he extols thee as a work divine ; 

Could he through glasses as undimmed as mine 
Behold thee groaning, he to truth might rise. 
I)ehind the mask that ])eopI(? know as "man/' 

Cringes a victim to some dc^stiued ill ; 

The seed is there that when it blossoms will 
Cut short tlu^ trembler in life's little span. 
His pains, his aches, his trials and his tears 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



His shames, his sorrows, his consamiiig fears 

Laid bare expose him as but mortal clay 
Preying on beasts, while that on which he feeds 
In turn devours him and explains his deeds, 
And makes one wonder how so long his day. 

(3) As Seen by The Lawyer. 

Man, his heirs, successors and assigns 

To nature's first behest gives certain ear ; 
And that he may himself preserve in cheer 

To tort his neighbors makes i^rofuse designs. 

These said designs (consummately to hide) 
Are called such names as interests and rights. 
And for these rights alleged a world he fights 

And prays its courts his foes to override. 

It matters little who besets his path — 
His father David or Phillistine hordes 
With Shylock wisdom he interprets words 

And to the death maintains his selfish wrath ; 

E'en after death to cloud each title's flaw 

He has conceived his chief design — the Law. 

(4) As Seen by The Newspaper Man. 
I've wondered often — as upon my way — 

(My duty simply to collect the news,) 

I've found but one sure course to glean men's views, 
If boasting was the habit of the day. 
And after years of wonder now at length 

I have decided that it is too true. 

For in my dealings with the favored few 
Or with the mob bald flattery is my strength. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



In saintly garb, in pugilistic belt, 
In four inch collar or in neglige, 
In men from London or from far Cathay 
The ruling feature is the same way spelt : 
Man's common failing lies within this hint: 
If you would please him put his name in print. 

(5) As Seen by The Shopkeeper. 

Ach man, mein friend, come in und see dese tings, 

Dey vas de very tings dat most you need ; 

Come in. I love you very much indeed — 
You vas von angel mit embroidered vings. 
Dis hat vas goot ; His in de latest style, 

De King of England bought von just like dat ; 

Oh yes, I know he's dead. He got de hat 
Before he died. Vot makes you smile? 
You vant a coat ! Take dis, it vears so well 

In vinter time it keeps de cold right out ; 

File in de summer ven de sun's about 
No heat gets in — dis fact I swear to tell. 
Not goot? Mein Gott ! unless you buy dese tings 
You surely vas von ass mit goose's vings. 

(6) As Seen by The Aristocrat. 

Ye howling mob, ye fawning lapdog race, 

Ye ingrate ignoramuses attend ; 

From off our lofty level we descend 
With magnanimity to prove your place. 
You are our slaves. We bought you with a price — 

Too high 'tis true ; but since 'tis paid 'tis paid, 

And we'll consent to keep you — in the shade — 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



From such a depth of course there is no rise. 
AVe ought to hate you for there have been fools 

AVho dared to think that we and you were kin. 

And from such madness rose the aw^ful din 
For manhood suffrage and for higher schools ; 
But thanks to gold we have joa yet in rein, 
And there we^ll hold you — quite beneath disdain. 

(7) As Seen by His Friend 

He has his faults, but he has virtues too ; 

And these so for outshine the little slips, 

That, take him all in all, they quite eclipse 
And show the sun as seen weak Luna through. 
Majestical beside aught else he stands: 

There is no beauty that is not his dower ; 

Upraised with reason and with conscious power 
All nature is a servant in his hands. 
Bravely he breasts misfortune's foaming wave ; 

Over its billows hear him even sing ; 
He's often moved his very foes to save 

While to his loved ones see him foiidly cling. 
Man's sore temptations, in the Devil's phm 
Are but his vengeance on the God in man. 

(8) As Seen by His Foe. 

Monster profound whose every thought is guile, 
Your chief delight is tearing others down ; 
'Tis when your zeal is careless that you frown ; 
Your deadliest efforts are behind your smik\ 
And yet 'tis certain that by malice tost 
Your courage oft your enemy appals 



SONNETS AX1> LOYE SONG«. 



AVhen on the elephant the lion falls 
Too like his valor to the human^s boast. 
You are a savage that one must appease, 

Nor cross till certain you are in our power, 
Lest in the crossing our poor blood should freeze 

And leave us helpless in that direst hour 
Brute man ! whose passions are the goad to art; 
Your on€ perfection is your want of heart. 

(9) As Seen by Woman. 

My Lord and Master; my admirer too; 

My noble guardian and my minister; 

There is no praise but what sounds sinister 
When I am singing of my love for you. 
I dream about you ere you yet have come; 

I bear you with a pride I dare not show 

Your playful antics as to age you grow 
Are with your other parts my pleasure's sum. 
.As Father you are worth personified ; 

As Brother you are comradeship complete ; 

As Husband there is naught so dear — so sweet— 
As Son you arc the hope for which I sighed. 
For you I labor and endure all pain, 
Since suffering for you is my greatest gain, 

<10) As Seen by (tod. 

AVithone sole attribute to be maintained, 
Each other handiwork but man I've graced ; 
But man within My universe is ])laciHl 

AVith attributes of all in one contained. 

The oak's grim strengtli — the frailty of Jlowers — 



10 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Are but suggestive of man's multi-powers 
The whole creation save in this regard 

Achieves its end within its little life ; 

But warring powers in self-preserving strife 
Make man immortal as his fit reward ; 

For strife continues until Lite and Light 

Put Death and Darkness into endless flight. 
When — evil vanquished — man becomes divine 
And one with Me perfects My great design. 



WOMAN-IN HER INFINITE VARIETY. 



(1) As Seen by The Poet. 
Daughters of Eve ; Of Trojan Helenas sex ; 

Juno^s ambassadors in every human home ; 

With Cleopatra's powder to ravish Rome 
And more — a man like Caesar to perplex ; 
Thy traits I'd sing — yet vain w^ill be my song, 

Unless assisted by the winsome Muse, 

Whose woman's wiles will twist my sagest views^ 
And use me that she may thy sway prolong. 
I know^ full well her proneness to such art ; 

'Tis useless to resist her arch desire ; 

She never lent a poet of her fire. 
Without demanding, from the very start, 
The tribute of his zeal for maiden worth ; 
His championship of her who gave him birth. 



SONNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 11 

<2) As Seen by The Misogynist. 

Velvety creature, whose delicious smile, 

Makes fools of men ; within whose tightening arms, 
We think no heaven can contain the charms 

That otherwise observed partake of guile; 

Thou art man's so-called peer, and yet his slave-, 
He knows thee less than him — feels thee grow stale — 
Can prove though fair thou too art false and frail ; 

But passion tost such dangers still will brave. 
In every art he leaves thee far behind ; 
Thou must grow mannish or be science blind; 

As daughter, sister, wife, too closely scanned, 

Thy faults more naked than thy virtues stand; 

^Tis but in fiction thou art aught divine: — 

Thy lord^'s the sun that makes thy moon to shine. 

<3) As Seen by The Loyer, 
Sweet lovely woman; paragon of flowers; 

Standard of beauty and man's highest hope; 

With thee as guiding star he's fit to cope 
And baffie every barrier to his powers; 
Thy frailty — thy delicacy warms, 
. We love the very faults we think we see — 

Which proves that after all they cannot be 
Faults, but the savory fillip to thy charms ; 
God bless thee darling, make thee all his care, 

Increase thy radiance till the sun is dimmed, 

Trim thee as roses up in heaven are trimmed; 
.And keep thee wholesonw as the mountain air: 

For by such providence of thee, soft mate, 

Man too is lifted to a higher state. 



12 SOXXETS AX]) LOVE SOXGS. 

(4) As Seex by The Other AVomax. 
Companion of my childhood : Bosom friend ; 

AVhen youth suggested secrets all might know : 
Bright garden where I see perfections grow 

So nicely, 1 forget they grow in sand : 

Sister, w^hose pretty face might rouse dislike 

AVere it unknown you could not help your faults : 

For mercy's sake what attitudes you strike ! 
Be careful dear, your pose is like your waltz ! 

Bow well you dress ! Is that your last year's hat ? 
Ah ! really, I quite thought it looked the same : 
Been sickly have you ? Oh that is a shame — 

It struck me somehow that you looked too fat. 

Ideal Being in the world's great plan 

You surely are tiie sweetest — after man. 

(5) As SsEX BY The Philosopher. 

Bone of man's bone ; flesh of his mortal flesh ; 

How^ truly w^oman's called man's other half. 
Within the net of home she is the mesh ; 

Of all that man creates the willing staff. 
In infancy upon her yielding breast, 

We lie and dream about her boundless i)ower ; 

Our childish rod — her frown — can make us cower; 
And of each early feat her smile's the test ; 
Kipe age looks to her and with clinging lip 

Confesses all the balm slu^ spreads so free 

With ministering hand she tiMiderly 
Smootlies many a furrowed brow for it's last sleep. 
The rose may wither when the summer dies: 
But woman ever blooms in manly eyes. 



SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 13 



IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



Thou venerable home of Britain's mighty dead ; 
Within thy precincts I in reverence bow : 
To whom I know not : yet I feel somehow 

Dark shapes around me and with awe I tread. 

Nave, transepts, chapels, corridors and choir 
All speak to me of ages that are gone ; 
xVbout thy cloisters — on the close-cropped lawn — 

I fancy monks still pacing with religious fire ; 

Thy chapter house yet eloquent resounds 
And echoes w^ith the Voices of the Past : 
Listen ! while Hampden with a deathless blast 

Warns tyrants back w^ithin their metes and bounds. 

Most noble pile ! long mayst thou hallowed be ! 

Science and art owe countless debts to thee. 

Here in their last and never-ending sleep — 
Careless alike of praise or blame they lie ; 
Wellington dreamless that he cannot die ; 

Nelson still drifting on unconquered deep. 

Hush ! is this Gladstone ? And can that be Burko ? 
Alas how silent ! they have fought their fight : 
So too has Wilberforce whose forensic might 

Struck chains from slaves and set some knaves at 

Beneath each aisle, where even whispers jar, [work. 
Preachers and scientists at peace repose ; 
And here and there dim effigies disclose 

Statesmen and soldiers done at last with war ; 

While on the sombre walls and foot worn floor 

Legends in brass and stone great deaths deplore. 



14 SONNETS AND LOA^E SOXGS. 

3. Newton and Jenner, Stephenson and Wren, 

Are waiting breathless for the trump to sound : 
Together Lind and Nightingale are found 

Eeady to prove their sex the peers of man ; 

Here slumbers Garrick from the footlights freed ; 
There Banyan tarries at the narrow gate ; 
Darwin, grown weary, is content to wait 

And leave to others what seemed his decreed ; 

Handel is silent and no longer writes 
The wondrous pseons that the Angels raise ; 
The hand of Reynolds thac won world wide praise 

Here lies inert unmoved by fancy^s flights : 

Un every side names common as the air 

Arrest the vision and abashed we stare. 



4. In poet's corner with touched heart I pause : 
(For poets win our tears if any do) 
And first appropriately bursts to view 

The actor-bard whose words are now our laws — 

The gentle Shakespeare of all poets chief ; 
Near by a bust of Burns — he who at plough 
Proclaimed that men were men — obtains my bow, 

A kindly soul his life was all too brief ; 

Byron the lord and Noll the doctor scribe, 
Of Johnson and of all the world a friend ; 
To both, as tribute due, I gladly bend 

\nd own the bliss I from their verse imbibe ; 

My wandering eyes next catch Longfellow's face 

And I have learned Fame knows not class nor race: 



80XNETS AX]) LOVE SONGS. 15 

5. But hold the verger beckons and I pay 

Before the entrance to the Koyal Tombs 
My trifle — marvelling such ignoble dooms 

Kings could befall — mere wonder to allay. 

Around me now whichever way I turn 
Grotesque mausoleums teem with noble dust ; 
Imperial virtues and Imperial lust 

Contained with surfeit in each grinning urn. 

Here lie the Georges ; there the Edwards sleep ; 

Destroying Angels through the Henry's creep ; 

All — all are dead. Yet to prolong their pomp 
They now are side-showed — what an aw^f ul fall I 
And men charge sixpence at the vulgar stall 

To those who fain mid princely bones would romp. 



But am I churlish ? Even Kings are men, 

With snares surrounding that but few w^ould flee ; 
That they are mortal they themselves agree ; 
And this great Abbey heralds forth the strain. 
'Tis well — most truly well ! Here let them rest — 
A chill reminder that we all must die : 
'Tis well too that the grave shuts every eye ; 
Else here a motley throng would lie distressed : 
Cromwell might worry Charles; and Mary's eye 
Might look reproachfully at good Queen Bess ; 
But they are dead. At worst they are not less. 
Prince, priest or plowman each demand our sigh: 
Though high their virtue or deep dyed their sin: 
This touch of nature makes us all akin. 



16 SONXETS AXl) LOVE SOXGS. 

7. Thou venerable tomb of Britain^s mighty dead ; 
Within thy precincts I in reverence bow ; 
To whom I know not. Yet I feel somehow 
God's nearer presence and with awe T tread. 
Nave, transepts, chapels, corridors and choir 
A.11 speak to me of ages that are gone : 
About thy cloisters — on the close cropped lawn — 
I fancy monks still pacing with religious fire ; 
Thy chapter house yet eloquent resounds 
And echoes with the Voices of the Past : 
Listen I while Hampden with a deathless blast 
Is telling tyraiits of their metes and bounds. 
Most hallowed pile ! Long mayst thou hallowed be ! 
The wide wide Earth — aye Heaven — owe debts to 
thee. 



DEMOCRATIC DOCTRINES. 



As presented in the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1900. 

ALL MEN ARE EQUAL. 
All men are equal in the eyes of law. 

So said the sires who fought to make us free ; 

And through the decades has that grand decree 
Preserved a people from the tyrant's paw. 
But lo ! the mass, forgetful of the cause 

Of their great freedom and our country's might. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 17 

Are wavering and weak while greedy laws 
Seek now to take away that equal right. 
In Porto Rico and the Philippines, 

Men are not men some lustful leaders rave, 
And wailing winds moan o'er dividing wave 
The apathy of kindred to the awful signs : 
But winds are shifting and a time may come 
When those dividing lines will rend our home. 



PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH. 
Bring back your arms from far Philippean shores 

Why crush the spirit of that Island race ? 

What crime is theirs except the crime we trace 
Back to our fathers and their children's doors ? 
When we demand that w'e shall rule at home 

It is a precedent for every land ; 

And as we hope for right at our demand 
80 should we hear the pleas that to us come. 
Spain would not listen to the Cuban cry, 

Till we in their behalf took up the sword : 

It makes a difference whose ox is gored — 
Or else our Cuban war was all a lie. 
Behold we wave our flag to free brave men 
That we may re-enslave them if we can. 



ARE OUR MOTIVES PURE? 
Can liattering unction and the glare of spoil 
So soon seduce our young republic's fame ? 



18 SONNETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 

Or is it glory without fear of shame, 
That lures our troops o'er Asiatic soil ? 
Is it sheer virtue with no hope of gain 

Save but to free our citizens abroad 
That men are dying on a foreign plain ? 

And can we on their part implore our God ? 
Would Washington — Would Jefferson — if here 

Confirm the message to unfurl our flag, 
And with land-grabbing allies strive to clear 

A path to Pekin while home statesmen brag ? 
A last pure test — could Lincoln's honored shade 
Be now invoked to lend invasion aid ? 



BEWARE OF MILITARISM. 
In far off Sparta in days best gone by, 
The grand ideal was to wield world power ; 
And he who dared before a foe to cower 
By even mother love was doomed to die. 
This martial spirit so imbued the race 

That Spartans thought the sword their only tool ; 
While Helots tilled the soil beneath their rule 
And were but slaves who held their lives by grace- 
Thus Sparta's glory was her greatest shame ; 
Train men to arms and they true toil to shirk 
Must still have Helot slaves to do the work 
And Helot slaves means death to every right 
While warrior worship is the lurid light 
B-y which we see the way all Caesars came. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 19 

DOWN WITH THE TEUSTS. 
Shall Trusts usurp the presidential chair? 

Shall Government be but the tool of gold ? 

Shall brazen pomp grow bolder and more bold 
While freedom fawns or crouches in its lair ? 
Beware lest combines in this pregnant hour 

Become so strong they can despise the vote 

That now exerted would upturn the boat 
Wherein they sail to certain sovereign power. 
Shall we protect these multi-millionaires, 

And fill their coffers with the widow's mite ? 
While they unmindful of the orphan's prayers 

Reduce men's wages and our firesides blight. 
Down with the Trusts or else we soon shall see 
America no more the land of liberty. 



SILVER SHALL BE FREE. 

*'Goin only Gold'' the Wall street magnates cry, 
And loud the echo from the White House calls 
While louder still throughout the Senate Halls 

Eesounds the din that drowns the people's sigh. 

""Tis true" they say "once silver had its day" 

"But that day's done or w^ealth has lost its power 
"Wealth can't afford its money thus to shower 

■^'On men who work — on unkempt common clay." 

"The poor were robbed by sleek long-headed stealth. 
When silver first the law demonetized ; 
But now in morals law has been baptised 

And guards the tliieves in their ill-gotten wealth. 



20 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

But right is might, despite the Powers that Be ; 
And time is near when silver shall be free. 



ELECT THE SENATE. 

What is this wealth that it should have a right 
In our young land above the rights of man ! 
Is flesh so common in creation^s plan 

That it must bow and scrape to lucre's might ; 

Because our country once was free from class 
Our fathers dreamed not that it was a bane : 
Ind therefore made a Senate to contain 

Men who w^ere not beholden to the mass. 

But we have learned that classes are a snare ; 
And that a senator — else tried and true — 
Is an aristocrat free men must rue — 

Since for their votes he has no vital care. 

Elect the Senate and arrest its fall : 

Make lords of none but honored peers of all. 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 
By God's great grace America is free : 

Her sovereign people own no upstart lord r 

They rule themselves and with a ready sword 
Will still maintain that glorious liberty. 
To pamper princes rouses all their scorn ; 

To baffle kingcraft gains their sympathy ; 
In conscious strength — of bloodbought victory born- 

They stand the champions of democracy. 
As grand protectors from Imperial greed — 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 21 

Uiiurged by appetites for old world power — 
In new world soil 'tis theirs to sow the seed 

That sunned and shielded yields republic flower. 
Columbia's past prescribes her right to clear 
From Europe's sway the western hemisphere. 



LEVY AN INCOME TAX. • 

We must have revenue without a doubt ; 
This all agree to and the question lies 
In how we'll get it and yet be most wise ; 

Since wisdom oft in unknown guise we flout. 

Some say Protection is the only way : — 
Perhaps it is but to our cost we learn 
That those protected on ourselves oft turn 

And use the strength we give to dock men's pay. 

Some think our country should be run by fines; 
While others swear a revenue from wines 

Would put the load upon the ablest backs. 
But after all when all have had their say 
There's but one true — one plainly honest way ; 

And that's by levying an Income Tax. 



SPIALL WE PIAVE PEACE— OR WAK. 
From off a bluft" where swelled Montana's breast, 
Two scenes I saw of wonderful contrast: 
High on my right far stretched the rolling plain ; 
Dry, cracked, forbidding, with no sign of life 
Save that of frighted beasts in desperate strif<* 
Fleeing the prairi<^ fir« that came amain 



22 S0NXET8 AND LOVE SOXGS. 

With clouds of smoke and yawning lurid glare. 
Upon my left below me smiled a vale : 
Green, fertile, sw^eet ; protected from the gale 

By sloping hills where flocks devoid of care 
Nibbled the grassy sward. A shady spot 
Near pleasant stream half hid the shepherd's cot. 
Here side by side ruled Pan and bloody Mar : 
The vale was peace ; the plain grim-visaged war. 



WHEN OTHEK LEADERS FAIL 
We've read his speech. In every word we see 

Honor stand clear aud courage to the death : 

Love for the lowly is in every breath 
And earnest purpose to spread liberty. 
None can confront the honest view^s he holds; 

While dreams of empire must before them fall ; 

Leave to Monarchic greed the lustful call — 
And trust a future that true virtue moulds. 
The principle of empire is a snare, 

Wherein its advocates themselves are caught ; 

The greed that prompts it is the same dark blot 
That hides from rich men when they've had their 
Let men thank God when other leaders fail : [share. 
Loved Truth brings forth a BRYAN to prevail. 



PONCE DE LEON'S MISTAKE. 



In search of youth across the watery main. 
In ages past de Leon sailed from Spain ; 



SONNETS AXD LOVE SOXGS, 23 

He steered his course to Florid^s suiinj^ land, 
Where Indians, pointing to its flowery strand, 
Assured him "Here your search will not be vain,'' 
"Rest for awhile and youth you must regain." 
But all too eager in his grand desire : 
He could not rest — he could not quench his fire — 
He must at once be young lest Death, the pest, 
Should creep upon him in his idle rest: 
So pressing on — as others still are fain 
In futile search for what by rest they'd gain — 
He passed at length beyond our healthful clime 
And died a victim of his fire sublime. 



FLORIDA'S EPITAPH ON FLAGLER. 



Here neath the turf where many times he trod 
Lies Henry Flagler face to face with God ; 
How came his wealth or what his motives were 
Leave we to that Most High Tribunal's care : 
Suffice it now that we confess our loss. 
And since he's gone take up our heavier cross. 
He came to Florida and with his gold 
Changed trackless jungle into fertile wold ; 
If he but looked, behold the noisome wild 
Bedecked itself with green and prosperous smiled; 
And where fierce sn.akes and alligators crept 
Now thriving cities into life have stepjHHl — 
Grand, lasting monuments to that great zeal 
Which ended, robs us of our speedier weal. 



24 SONNETS AND LOVK SONGS. 



CANADA. 



Loved Canada ! Our Lady of the Snows ! 
Thy name— thy fame— is tuned to many a lyre : 
Thy charms to song thy favored sons inspire 

While from afar response sweet echo throws. 

Thou sittest on thy throne immaculate : 
God keep thee so thy subjects fondly pray. 
Throughout thy vast dominion be thy sway 

A sway of freedom spite of tyrant's threat. 

Be not ashamed to own thy virgin youth. 
It is a boast that gives thy present hour— 
(Uncurbed by course prescribed— by vested power) 

Authority to choose the path of truth ; 

Since gold or vaunted pedigree can claim 

As yet no right to rob thee of thy name. 



FAREWELL! 



To the Canadian Contingent on their departure from Quebec 
for service With the British army in the Transvaal, Oct. 31, 1899. 

Good bye Canadians. On far Afric's strand 
You'll be the warders of a country's pride : 
On you— whatever good or ill betide— 

Depends the honor of your native land. 

Your every act an Empire's eyes will see ; 
Upon your courage rests a people's fame ; 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 25 

In foreign climes His yours to guard a name — 
Blood-bought on Abram's plain — for chivalry. 
We wish you Godspeed all your mission through ; 

We pray that fortune may your steps attend ; 
Our hearts are with you in whatever you do ; 

We know full well our trust you will defend. 
Brothers, adieu ! An earnest, warm adieu ! — 
In life — in death — to Canada be true. 



WELL DONE. 



Message from the people of Canada to their Contingent in 
South Africa after Paardebeig and the relief of Mafeking. 

Well done, brave sons ! Your ev^ry move weVe traced : 
With eager eyes — through tears — weVe scanned the 
You are of us, and so we could not choose [news- 

But stand with you or fall at Fate's behest. 

We knew your valor. In your veins you bear 
The chivalry of France — the Briton's pride — 
With names like "Cartier^^ or "Champlain'' to guide. 

Or "Brant'' or ''Brock" to teach you how to dare. 

But never did we dream that you might do 
Such deeds as late have set us wild with joy : 
Such fearless feats— fit boast for fabled Troy— 

As give the palm of Paardeberg to you. 

We wait, impatient, till the war is o'er, 

To do you honor on your proud home shore. 



26 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



AWAKE MY COUNTRYMEN 



Awake my countrymen ! Why longer pause ? 
Get ready to receive with open arms 
Those who so readily at war^s alarms 

Went forth to battle in our country's cause. 

It was their part to buffet ocean/s foam 
To drudge and labor through a treacherous land — 
Where shrubs belched fire and every rock was 

To die if need be for their far-off home. [manned- 

This have they done — and that they did it well — 
With all the vim befitting such a toil 
And world-wide credit to their native soil — 

The Empire's gratitude itself will tell. 

Then let us quick prepare to do our part, 

And bid them ''welcome'' from a nation's heart. 



OUR HERO BROTHERS. 



Throughout the breadth of our Canadian land 
TiCt all be glad ; let every liome rejoice : 
Back to our miast have come the faithful band 

Whose gallant actions so approved our choice. 

There is no welcome that proud hearts can make 
Will e'er repay the debt we owe these men — 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 27 

They fought for us on Afric^s hostile plain 
And gave their life blood for our country's sake. 
Then fill the winecups till each brim runs o'er ; 
Drink deep and often to the cherished toast : 
"Our Hero Brothers'' for through them we boast 
Defense more certain than a wall-girt shore. 
Since these, her sons, as soldiers tried and true, 
Have shown to foes what Canada can do. 



BY THE GRAVE OF LOUIS KIEL 



In the old churchyard at St. Boniface, across the Red river 
from Winnipeg. 
Here lies, unmourned, the Indian half-breed's friend ; 

The Frenchman who demanded English right ; 

Who rather than be cheated chose to fight — 
Yet fought with those who fain his wrongs would end. 
There is no doubt — rebellious though he was — 

His steadfast stand was for his country's good ; 

There was a grievance, and in brother's blood 
He wrote the message that made safe their cause. 
To Manitoba and the Great Northwest 

His leadership though faulty was not vain : 

Some look upon his sowings with disdain 
Who reap the harvest in bad laws redressed. 
I see a time when history's page will tell 
How much we owe the rebel chief — Kiel. 



28 SOXXETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 



MY CHOICE OF CITIES. 



If I were asked a city to design, 

Which for its beauty would be world renowned. 
And which with such attractions would abound 

That other cities it would quite outshine : 

I'd choose a hillside for my city's sight, 

With other hills around to change the scene ; 
Vd have a sea or river intervene 

Whose sinuous course was plain from every height : 

I'd have a Castle or a Forted Isle, 
A storied house or two and many a spire, 
With here and there a monument to fire 

The citizens with love of glorious toil : 

And as a worthy name my burg I'd call 

For fair Edina or loved Montreal. 



THE ONE I LOVE. 



The one I love— Oh holy, happy thought ! 

Oh balm of Gilead for each petty ill ! 

What rapture or ecstatic throe can thrill 
Like to the rapture from these accents caught ? 
The one I love — the one I live to please — 

The one whose smile dispels my darkest gloom 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 29 

AVhose wish makes dareable the direst doom 
And transforms hardship to a life of ease — 
This one I love is why, w^hen troubles come, 

And all the world seems but a cage of strife 
When fellows slight me and loud friends grow dumb 

I still have reason to be glad of life : 
Sahara's desert must Elysium prove. 
If in its confines lives "the one I love.'' 



TO EDWIN H. LEMARE, ORGANIST 



Of St. Margaret's church, Westminster, where the members 
of Britain's Parliament are supposed to attend. 

I chanced within St. Margaret's yesternight, 
A stranger saddened by the ills of life ; 
A fugitive from self and inward strife ; 

But proving even there a futile flight ; 

When lo ! the holy house grew great with song; 
And angels' voices broke upon my ear ; 
And I forgot that 1 was lone and drear, 

And soared triumphant over every wrong. 

And as I listened to the magic strain 
That filled and thrilled me with reviving hope, 
What late seemed wn^akness with expanding scope 

Was now a power that made all barriers vain. 

Thus recreated in im])nlsive prayer, 

1 thanked the Eternal for thy art, Lemare. 



30 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



ON TARA AT SUNRISE. 



"As 1 left Castleboy cottage my foot had a spring to it that 
vied with the spring obtained a few nights previous from 
Father McGuire's grog. The kindness of this widow woman 
had put me once more Into countenance with myself. I even 
felt poetical. And as I walked along the profile of Tara— the 
most sacred spot in all Ireland— the realization of the privi- 
lege 1 was enjoying quite saturated me, and jumping over 
the hedge that skirted the roadside to be out of si^ht of 
passersby, I sat on a knoll just as the suh w^as rising and 
composed the following sonnets:"— Notes of a Tramp thro' 
Ireland ) 

Once on a time, in ages long since sped, 

Upon this height a royal palace stood ; 

While all around for many a storied rood 
Ireland united knew a peace now fled. 
'Twas here St. Patrick faced a heathen race 

And fearless won for Christ a warring land ; 

Till, careless of the laws he thoughtful planned, 
The very church then nurtured now yields place. 
Here, where a capitol, in war or peace 

For wisdom was the wonder of the world ; — 

Where Learning's flag was dauntlessly unfurled 
Till Erin wore the crown once worn by Greece^; 
Now Ignorance prevails and l)ut the few, 
Can claim the laurels to the student due. 

But see ; across the height the morning sun, 
A harbinger of hope sheds rays around ; 
The long night's shadows leave each moss-topped 

New sheen is gathered on deserted throne, [mound ; 

The Stone of Destiny looks bright once more ; 




X 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 81 

St. Patrick's well no longer teems with blood ; 

The kingly chair-^the trenches and the wood, 
The grass — has ceased to tell of human gore. 
A brighter day approaches and again 

The Hall of Tara half resumes its state ; 

Nature grown grateful now opposes Fate 
And seeks to overcome Euadan's* ban. 
God make this sun prophetic of Thy smile 
Soon to resparkle o'er the Emerald Isle. 

*lt is claimed that the desertion and final ruin of Tara 
Hall was due to an ecclesiastic named Saint Ruadan who 
cursed the hill for some personal aifront received from its 
occupants. 



GLASGOW UNIVERSITY. 



Upon proud eminence, a stately pile, 
The University of Glasgow stands, 
And' in its majesty a view commands 

Of many a crowded — many a storied mile. 

Fair Wisdom's feet to lave, close by its base, 
The w^inding Kelvin babbles as it falls ; 
Whlie on the further bank Art's treasury halls 

On lower level own their lower place. 

Above mere din — above the sad turmoil 
Of those who battle but for daily bread, 
Sits Learning's seat, like crown on kingly head- 
On summit only reached by nobler toil. 

Most graceful symbol ! object lesson grand ! 

Urge still to higher lieights my fatlier's land. 



32 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



TO MY ONLY SISTER. 



My dear old Sis, who through lifers fleeting years 
IVe learned to love as I have loved but few : 
Accept this little tribute as a due — 

Glad offered — for the worth that so endears. 

In childhood of cen have I crossed your path : 
Too well I can recall each boyish prank — 
Each dubious action that should give me rank 

With those who merit not your love — but wrath : 

Yet spite of all I ever prove you kind ; 

AVhen others fail me you are still my friend ; 

Your great big heart to many faults quite blind, 
Full credit gives when 1 may but intend. 

I knew no mother — but Vve found in you 

The compensation of a sister true. 



ANNIE BESANT, the Orator. 



Of all the speakers T have ever met, 
None have I looked on with such higli esteem 
As Annie Besant ; she could quite redeem 
Her sex to me from being things men pet : 
Her voice was music from Apollo's lyre ; 
And every word she uttered fell like gold, 



BONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 33 

Rich with great thoughts expressed : while 
thoughts untold 

Seemed to surround each pause and lend it tire. 

Years upon years of misrepute and care 

Had scored her forehead and had blanched her hair ; 

But as she warmed to what she had to say — 
Ennobled by her sentiments divine — 
Her eyes bright glistened ; and a flush like wine 

Made her grow lovely as the dawning day. 



DEATH. 



Oh Death ! Thou Great Unknown : Thou Open Door 
Beyond whose threshold Darkness reigns supreme : 
Thou Cave of Silence : thou cold, black Stream : 
Thou trackless Ocean that no sails explore : 
Thou rushing Whirlwind that around us blows ; 
Thou distant Rumbling that will never end : 
To life the fiercest foe — the dearest friend: 
Thou Sleep Eternal of unmixed repose : 
Pacifiers billows have their rocky bound ; 
White Alpine summits we can see. at whiles; 
Sahara's desert is described in miles ; — 
E'en Heaven's azure may not long confound, 
But Thou art limith^ss. I love; then' Death ! 
Thy matchless power compels n\y perfect faith. 



34 soxxETS Axr> love songs. 



LIFE. 



Life is all a sleep and Death the grand awaking ; 

Our little night of dreams is but a speck in time : 
The pains, the aches, the griefs, the mares that set us 
quaking — 
Will be the sad, sweet tones in morning's merry chime. 
Our souls but tarry here to rest awhile from winging : 
Darkness and mist and fog succeed each glorious day ; 
But from the sleep of Life, while funeral bells are 
ringing, 
They'll wake to toils divine, and leave their cots of 
clay. 
Eternal is the *'I'' and flesh is merely dressing — 
A gown the "I'' puts on for cover during sleep ; 
Misfits and shoddy cloth some sleepers are distressing, 
Yet 'tis for but one night the tortured "I" need weep : 
For when the night is o'er and day is breaking, 
\Ve'll all arise renewed by Death's awaking. 



LOVE. 



We use the name of Love to suit mere whim — 
Sometimes we mean Desire — oft Fascination ; 
Respect perhaps : Esteem — or Admiration ; 

E'en Reverence in the guise of Love we hymn ; 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 35 

Such whims are idle. Love should not be called 
For thoughts so small — so limited in reach : 
If these were all combined we then might teach 

The combination to be Love enthralled. 

True Love is free. The wide surrounding skies 
Cannot confine this heaven-engendered power ; 

Yet if they pay its price — self sacrifice — 

The sad, the gay, may gain it in a day : 

While men may prove they love within that hour 

That they can bless what has despised their sighs. 



FORGIVEN. 



A load was lifted from my aching heart ; 

Where all seemed dark new light began to shine : 

Aromas that I could not half define 
Around me gathered and healed every smart. 
She I had loved but who had since grown cold, 

For what I know not, yet I was to blame : 

In dreams unbidden to my bedside came 
And once again love's tender story told. 
I did not speak ! I only held her tight ; 

I dared not trust my ecstacy to words ; 

The mount of ice— the wall of bristling swords— 
That had grown up between had vanished quite : 
And as I heard her benedict "Forgiven,'' 
I knew the rapture of the Christian's heaven. 



36 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



SYMPATHY. 



Fair floweret, blooming where no gardener strays, 
The one pure spark that makes mankind divine^ 
The pearl that is not thrown away on swine, 

Sweet Sympathy, inspirer of immortal lays ! 

Thou touch of nature that proves all earth kin, 
That urges poets sing the daisy's praise, 
That points the sluggard to the ant's wise ways 

And whispers to the sportsman : "this is sin :'' 

Mak^ thou thy home within my warring breast ; 
Teach me to love my neighbor as myself ; 

I fain would do, with greater, truer zest, 

The deeds that are not bought with vulgar pelf r 

Be thou my guide when shame-tossed brothers crJ^ 

That I may share the load that makes them sigh. 



SOLITUDE. 



My ministering angel Solitude ; 

To whose soft arms in every cross I fly ; 

AVho, with thy silent sympathetic eye 
Can soothe — can calm my fiercest ache or mood : 
Thou art my mistress true — my soul of glee — 

With thee I languish in ecstatic throe ; 



SONNETS AXD LOVE SONGS. 37 

With thee I share the sweetest joys I know ; 
And none can satisfy my heart like thee ; 
Thou art my mother ; on thy gentle breast 
I lie in perfect everlasting rest; 
Outside the world may jar and fret and stray — 
But all its wrangle seems so far away, 
When I'm with thee, I would not have it cease : 
For it is then a lullaby of peace. 



MOCK MODESTY. 



Begone Mock Modesty ! I hate thy sight. 

Get thee behind me to thy father's arms. 

Let Satan fold thee with thy sickl^^ charms 
•Close to his breast. Away incestuous sprite! 
Thy lurid hue real modesty has dimmed; 

Thy syphylittic sores spread odor on the wind, 

And thy pretense 'tis sweet gulls weakling mind, 
Till straight the fool thy murderous breath has hymned, 
Oet thee behind me; thou shalt never hoar 

Me sing thy praises when I know thee foul; 
I've seen too many by thy hidden dart 
Into the grave of fallen truth depart. 

Let innocence beware such leprous ghoul: 
Mock Modesty the path to Indl sweeps clear. 



38 .'^ONXETS ASD LOVE 80XGS. 



CRUELTY. 



Oh God ! how vile a thing is ingrate man, 
That crushes timid violet under foot, 
And plucks the scented daisy b}^ the root, 

And robs from budding rose its little span 

Of life. How heartless must he be who can, 
With cruel unrelenting eye and aim, 
Intend the songster of the field to maim, 

That he may boast his skill to sportive clan. 

And yet 'tis done with heedless hue and cry ; 
No conscience chides a sport in search of game ; 

Men shed the bloom of flowers unwittingly— 
Nor dream that they are guilty or to blame. 

While he who rails at these can cause the sigh 

Of those he dearly loves, yet feel no shame. 



REMORSE. 



Dead ! Is he dead ? Oh heavy, heavy blow ■ 
That leaves me helpless on an ocean vast ;" 
And mocks my torture to redeem the past ; 

And steeps my soul in bitte^ galling woe. 

Why was I blind ? My foolish fault was plain ; 
But pride, the serpent, poised my upturned nose^ 
And urged me on the sinful path I chose. 



HONNP^TH AND LOVE S()XG«. 39 

, Though every step stabbed through and through his 

brain. 
And now he^s dead. And though hearths blood I sweat ; 

Though out my soul is poured in guilty tears; 
Hollow — aye useless — is each late regret ; 

The changeless past must haunt all future years. 
Oh spectre grim ! Henceforth on duty^s course, 
Thou sure wilt keep my straying feet — Remorse. ' 



POVERTY. 



Grim Poverty, — and yet methinks not grim; 

Cruel and yet not cruel after all — 

Since He who, loving, view^s the sparrow's fall'^ 
With Poverty renews my virtue's vim. 
Grim Poverty! experience calls thee grim! 

And shudders when it sees the haggard eye 

That eloquently speaks a living lie, 
And calls what God thought best— a cruel whim. 
But after all despite the threadbare coat; 

Despite the unshorn head— the pallid brow- 
Behold the downcast look and you will note 

That vanity has fled despondence slough ; 
While fruits like symj)atliy and prudence wise 
F*rove Poverty a blessing in disguise. 



^0 SOXXETS AXD LOVE 5;0XGS'. 



TKAVEL. 



Travel, thou Alma Mater, in whose school 

We learn the dearest lessons of our life ; 
Whose influence gives breadth to bigot fool ; 

And makes the wit as sharp as cobbler's knife. 
' The youthful mind attracted by thy smile 

Expands the more— the more it sees of thee ; 

AVhile sober age finds in thy door the key 
To solace from life's worry, work, and wile ; 
Thou art Nirvana when we're crazed with care ; 
Thy changing scene plays havoc with despair ; 
Upon thy stage, whose curtain never falls 
Until dark Death the watcher's eye enthralls, 
We view the world that God to man has given— 
That world which seen we're loth to leave for heaven. 



ODYSSEUS. 



Odysseus, famous child of dreamer's brain. 

My aim personified in thee I find ; 

Like tliee I'd fain to threatening fates be blind 
And for thy laurels I'd endure all pain. 
Beside thy honors wealth is- but a glare 

Outshining conscience and enhancing \ice : 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 41 

Since he who thinks vain gold the highest choice 
Becomes its slave and shuns a hero's care. 
Loved wanderer ! Thou man of many woes ! 
Whom poet's hope conceived and set on foot 
To conquer after long and strange« pursuit 
The ills that man had thought o'erwhelming foes : 
When on my bed of death I view my past, 
May retrospect like thine be mine at last. 



HEROISM. 



The hero soul is not so much the man, 

Who preaches courage till its need has come, 
And then fear palsied, stands inert and dumb. 

Till golden opportunity grows wan : 

Nor yet is he true hero who by chance, 
Not choice, fills up the bloody yawning gap ; 
And who would fain have fled the fearful trap 

Had Fate been kind and warned him with a glance : 

But when we meet a man of modest power 
Who knows 'tis danger that he reckless braves, 
Yet takes no thought of death or after gain 
But plunges in, one object to attain. 
And as a Saviour breasts tempestuous waves, — 

We've met a hero in that crowded liour. 



42 S0XXET8 AND LOVE SOXGS. 



PATRIOTISM. 



Thou weather talk of politicians Hail ! 

Thou never failing cloak for statesmaii's wiles ; 

Thou burst of eloquence that hides dark spoils ; 
Great Patriotism ! attend the muse's wail. 
So often art thou sung in crowded mart 

The grand excuse of blood}^ grasping crime : 

That now thy name, once sweet as vesper chime. 
Is warning sound to watch for hidden dart 
I have grown chary of the patriot's zeal ; 
Nor can I quite determine if 'tis real ; 

Since clothed so oft in demagogic dress : 
One test of whether we are home's true friend, 
And really eager all its ills to end, 

Is : Do we help our neighbor in distress ? 



SCIENCE. 



Stand Science ! Be not over bold and vain ; 
We owe thee praises but not all our praise, 
We own that but for tliee our dragging days 

Would still be spent in caves along the main ; 

We own that by thy aid our years yet few 
Are multiplied in deeds if not in hours ; 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 43 

That now by hints from thee our human powers 
Grow Godlike; and we rise to higher view : 
But if we owe thee this we still have cause 
To fear the sweeping inroad of thy laws ; 

And though thy truths have dimmed the spirit fires 
That thrilled the breasts of bludgeon wielding sires 
Yet matter is not all, and back we turn 
Glad that the spirit fires still dare to burn. 



TEUTH. 



Truth ! thou art vague, and must we say unreal, 
When we look at thee with our human eyes, 
Through prejudices born of friendship's ties, 

And all the colors that before us steal ; 

And yet we love thee. When we see thy shade 
We recognize in it great Heaven's sign ; 
And that thou art the weapon most divine 

With which the foes of progress low are laid. 

We fain would have thee parted from the dross 
That claims thy kinship as its right to life, 
Yet with that life would wield tlie ingrate knife 

And nail its boasted kinsman on a cross 

Dawn Truth triumphant over every evil 

Keveal thyself and shame usurping Devil. 



44 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



HISTORY. 



History to thee we bow on bended knee ; 

Thou art so true — inexorable — just. 

Thou hast no appetite — and if one lust ; 
It is the fall of empires to decree. 
Stranger than fiction, o'er thy teeming page 

AVhile yet untutored our young eyes have pored, 

Imbibing thoughts with which thy tale is stored 
Of righteous hope to feed our thinking age. 
Thou telescope through which a mortal eye 

May peer and see the future plainly bared ; 
Thou patriot's armory, where we espy 

Pride-razing daggers and the deeds they dared. 
With reverence we hail thy frosted youth 
And love thee History as man's test of truth. 



CONSISTENCY, 



Consistency 'tis said thou art a jewel. 

I doubt it for I've failed to see thy sheen. 

Thou hast no flashes of the diamond keen ; 
The opal's changing hues near thee are cruel. 
Thou art more truly called a monument — 

A picture of the unprogressive past — 



SOXNETS AXl) LOVE SONGS. 45 

A landmark — or historical contrast — 
But not a jewel ; that name I must resent. 
Consistent men are men who in their youth 

Make childish vows and keep them until death ; 
Who close their eyes to glorious dawning truth 

And laud old follies with their latest breath : 
Men who mount each day from high to higher 
Must burn consistence on the dead past's pyre. 



FRIENDSHIP. 



Friendship ! true test of honest human worth — 
Not found in heaven for heaven cements with love— 
And yet conceived and nurtured from above ; 

Thou art a precious gift from heaven to earth. 

The common prize of life's Olympic game ; 
Who do the greatest feats get most of thee ; 
But woe to him poor wretch who finds no key 

To luck — since lack of thee steeps deep in shame. 

E'en he who wins thee is not all secure ; 
For when he thinks he has thee by the hip, 
And careless grows, the prize begins to slip ; 

Till when quite gone no feat again can lure. 

And if once lost, the loser, doubly drear. 

Groans 'neath his loss and groaning ])roves thee dear. 



46 soxxj:ts axb love songs. 



TO MY MISTRESS' EYE BROW. 



With all due thanks to Shakespeare for suggesting a subject. 
This sonnet is an acrostic to the lady in whose honor it is 
written. 

Blessed the man who in life's fleeting span 
E'en once may see brows delicate as thine ; 
All ills forgot in that inspiring wine : 

The skies w^ax lovely since their sweep shows plan : 

Rainbow^s assume new beauty to the gaze : — 
In each soft arch a glimpse of thee is seen : 
Could struggling artist, on his ''Heaven's Queen'' 

Engraft thy lashes, he might live always. 

Can men then marvel that I now profess 
A pleasure boundless as the rolling sea, 
In gazing while I may quite greedily 

Right at bright vision that might many bless. 

No— nought in nature could refuse such glance : 

Such penciled curves would make a Saturn danco. 




ha 









SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 49 



LILY AND THE ANGEL. 



AN ALLEGORY. 



Once on a time, many ages ago, 
There lived in this world of oars a strange race ; 
Not gods — not fairies — bat as wonderf al ; 
Possessed of great beauty and strength, yet slaves- 
Weak slaves to their own pleasures and passions. 
They had many divine powers, but alas 
Nothing has survived of them save names— vain 
Spectral names — to tell of long gone glory. 
Still the objects to which these names are given 
Suggest to us — somewhat vaguely His true — 
The attributes of those w^ho used to bear them. 



EAETH IMPRISONED BY WINTER. 

Among this race, so introduced, there lived 

A young and beautiful princess named Earth ; 

And this lovely lady, tradition says, 

Was once imprisoned by one called Winter. 

AVinter, although old and hoary-headed. 

Was a tyrant cold as he was cruel ; 

And Earth was bound hand and foot before him 

Because, forsooth, she had shunned his approach 



50 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

And had scorned his impotent advances. 
But happily in all times innocence 
Has always had admirers — not only 
Among low creatures of lust but also 
Among those who are high and virtuous — 
And so while fair Earth was in durance vile, 
There came to the neighborhood a gallant 
Young, noble, handsome and courageous. 
His name was Spring, a son of one — King Sol — 
. The most powerful monarch of those times ; 
And being the very flower of chivalry, 
He no sooner heard of Earth's sorry plight 
Than he determined to be her champion. 
He could not see her whom he would rescue, 
(For the jealous old churl had concealed her) 
But he could hear her sighs and her moanings, 
And distress never fails to excite the brave. 



EARTH BECAME THE BRIDE OF SPRING. 

Then it was Winter was assailed by Spring 
And at length forced to flee in disorder ; 
Leaving within his now ruined castle 
Princess Earth as the prize of the victor. 
When the maiden beheld her deliverer 
She was grateful as freed maiden might be ; 
While Spring newly seeing her beauty, in turn 
Became a captive, for first love's ardor 
Is a chain binding loved one and lover 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 51 

Together, and, if the love is returned. 

Such a chain as enfetters forever. 

This w^as the case with Spring ; and his captor, 

Sweet Earth, listened with no unwilling ear 

To words that made both lives happy. At last, 

In the fullness of time, when, as always, 

True love had increased the wooer^s courage 

And made the wooed more lovely, they were w^ed» 

It is needless to tell the rejoicing. 

Congratulations, feastings and pleasure. 

That the wide, wide realm indulged when its prince 

Led his well won bride to the nuptial bower ; 

Nor need we tell of the blessings then showered 

Upon the distinguished pair. All — all joined 

In wishing them Godspeed. The very birds 

And the flowers and the brooks and the meadows 

Scattered music and fragrance about them. 



THE BIRTH OF LILY, PANSY AND ROSE. 



It was of this union, tradition says. 

Three daughters were born at one birth — Lily, 

Pansy and Rose — as like as babes could be. 

And as fair as their beautiful mother. 

Their early life, as might be imagined. 

Was one long, sunny day. On every hand 

They were praised both for their birth and beauty ; 

Whatever they desired was given to them ; 



52 SONNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 

While courtiers studied to arouse new whims 

That they might thus have greater power to please. 

So the years passed and, as their childhood fled 

Pursued by dainty girlhcod^s halcyon days, 

Lovers from every clime throughout the world 

Began to flock around the triplets fair 

To bow and smile and woo. But maids much sought 

Are long impervious to the sighs of love ; 

And many beaux retired with heavy hearts 

To give their luckless place to comers new. 



THE WOOING OF RUSE BY SUMMER. 



But Cupid never sleeps. Though long repulsed 
He bides his time and gathers strength with years ; 
And when we laugh at scars, our foolish jest 
Is oft the shaft that, spent, leaves us unarmed. 
^Tis then — all wakeful — that the god of Love 
W^ith faultless aim lays low our erring pride. 

Rose was the first to feel the feathery dart. 
A prince called Summer, from adjacent realm, 
With warm and generous impulse and a smile. 
So winsome that it seemed a breath from Heaven, 
Quite fascinated lier. Yet truth to tell 
His smile was not reserved for her alone. 
(A fact perhaps thet made the joy more sweet 
When he at times did pay her special court). 



f^ONNETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 53 

And as she gazed upon him day by day 

Her early fascination turned to love : 

And with her love she was recreated. 

Hour after hour she would think of Summer ; 

Of his ardor and generosity ; 

Of the brilliance even of his anger ; 

Of his gay excesses ; his ready vows ; 

His fickleness ere e'en her back was turned ; 

Till she loved his very faults and girl like 

Would trace the links binding faults to virtues. 

Oh he was an ideal prince ! she thought ; 

And, in order to attract his glances, 

She became what she thought he would admire : — 

Voluptuously soft — surpassing fair — 

Prodigal of her charms and smiles and sighs— 

Until each vagrant zephyrous wind that blew 

Carried abroad some whisper of her sweets. 

For a time as Queen of every revel 

All suitors turned to court her mantling cheeks, 

Her dreamy eyes, her crimson lips, her chin 

Obsolute among its dimples, her curls 

Hiding behind their golden veil a neck 

White and swelling to tempestuous breasts 

Where little storms of passion always raged. 

And as all wooed their wooing sang her praise. 

Prince Summer, with the rest, confessed her Queen, 

And sought the charms she was so glad to yield ; 

Till with his tight embraces and his kiss. 

In very ecstacy, she ofttimes swooned. 

But love unchecked soon burns itself to nought 



54 SONNETS AND LOVE SOXG^. 

A few short fleeting months and Summer tired 

And left Hose drooping with her graces gone; 

For on the waves of passion that he raised 

AVere borne away the beauties he admired, 

Within each clinging kiss her soul escaped. 

Her gushing life-blood oozed with every sigh. 

A wreck still loving to the very last 

She hoped and pined and hoped he might return ; 

But woe alas no single charm was left 

That she might flaunt to bring him back again. 

With reckless prodigality of love 

She had forgot to guard against such chance ; 

So when deserted she could nought but — die. 



THE WOOING OF PANSY BY AUTUMN. 



About the time when Rose was at her best, 
Miss Pansy met a prince who waked her love. 
His name was Autumn; and he too had come 
A suitor to the court for beaucy famed. 
He was of dignified and stately mould ; 
His noble aspect won respect from all ; 
Learning was written on his ample brow ; 
While in his every act high birth appeared. 
He knew his worth and held himself aloof — 
Nor joined the noisy reyel of the court. 
His careful conduct thus conspicuous grew 
And soon attracted Pansy to his claims. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 55 

And as she daily scanned his measured mien 

AVithin her breast a secret pleasure dawned, 

And she would think for hours about his glance ; 

His studied smile came to her in her dreams ; 

She saw that he was cold to outward view — 

She saw — and knew 'twas pride that made him cold — 

But yet his very pride was so select, 

She argued to herself 'twas pride she loved. 

Around it all ideal virtues bloomed ; 

Within his eye she fancied hidden truth ; 

His very silence proved him wisdom's fount ; 

His coldness seemed to tell of lasting love. 

And so while gushing Rose dispensed her sweets 

With lavish recklessness on all who came ; 

More modest Pansy like her prince waxed proud, 

And masked her beauties from the common crowd. 

Yet in her girlish heart love's ardor glowed 

Perhaps more fiercely since it was restrained. 

(Confined affection like a furnace burns, 

And more intensely burns the more confined.) 

But stately Autumn only knew its strength 

When he at length relaxed his stately pride 

And at her feet like earnest lover wooed 

And vowed his preference for her dainty charms. 

When they were wed dark Pansy went to live 
AVitli Autumn in his rich ancestral halls ; 
And for a time her w^oman's heart was glad 
With conquest of a prince so great and grand. 
But time flew by, as time is wont to fly 
When we are happy that our goal is gained, 



56 SONNETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 

Till now it seemed to Pansy Autumn changed — 

(Or else ^twas she herself; she was not sure.) 

At all events his dignity increased 

The stateliness that once had been her joy 

Grew more impenetrable ; all her art 

(Which was not much, for she was also proud) 

Quite failed to thaw his everlasting frost. 

A woman's life is nothing without love 

Aye more than nothing — 'tis an aching void. 

She hungers for the smile — the gentle w^ord — 

The accent whispering that she is approved — 

And when it comes not, lo the past seems sham, 

The present mocks her and the future palls. 

Love — tender love — is woman's one success, 

Take that away and she has failed indeed. 

So Pansy found and yet she would not show 

The canker gnawing at her inmost heart. 

And thus estranged and lone she drooped and died 

And liKe her sister filled an unkept grave. 



LILY AND THE ANGEL. 



Now only Lily lived ; — her parents balm — 
The last attraction of a once gay court. 
Her sisters in their day had seemed to lead. 
Fair Pose's beauty and dark Pansy's grace 
Had flashed and hidden Lily's steadier sheen ; 
While she herself had yielded to their lead 



SONNET?; ANT) T^OYB SONGS. 57 

And paid them tribute as of higher worth. 

She loved them both so dearly that her care 

Was ever to enhance th^ir happy lot ; 

'Twas Rose or Pansy that was wooed — not she ; 

She always claimed the suitors bowed to them ; 

And in her quiet way she did her best 

To make their claims more pleasing than her own ; 

Till, to the thoughtless throng, it really seemed 

That what meek Lily said indeed was true. 

And yet she was not wholly unbeloved. 

In fact the truest homage came to her. 

Had she so wished she might have all outshone 

And been the sun round which the whole court 

But she was fair in heart as well as form; [moved. 

Her love of virtue was for virtue's sake .; 

Her generous impulse had no selfish spur^ 

JN^or was her modesty tlie bloom of pride. 

She in her early girlhood once had seen, 
While gazing awestruck into heaven's blue. 
The vision of an angel white and pure, 
Whose every movement had a holy grace. 
'Twas then, that, as she saw his tender eyes. 
His goldeo curls, his flowing spotless garb, 
Her childish heart first opened and she felt 
A waking wonder if he came for her. 
But even as she hoped the vision passed 
Into the heavens and left her wondering. 
Had she been sleeping? Was it all a dream? 
Who was the stranger with the tender eye? 
How came he yonder? Was he royally tJiere? 



58 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

These were the questions that had her confused 
As still she peered into th' eternal dome 
Expectant. But the azure depths of sky 
Baffled her hopes by their unchanging hue ; 
And she at length was forced to leave the place. 
But as she did she went a new made girl ; 
Days, weeks and months passed by but ever fresh 
Within her heart was fixed that heavenly form. 
And as she since had done her daily tasks 
She often felt that vision looking down 
And would look quickly up in confidence 
To catch again the halo of that glance. 
Thus was she kept exempt from many a sin 
For with her recollection of that form 
AVith all its white perfection in her mind, 
Pride could not gain an entrance to her soul ; 
And without Pride or follies born of Pride 
Nothing exists that is not true and good. 

One day having made a great sacrifice 

In order to please one of her sisters, 

And having met rebuff for her kind act, 

She stole away into a quiet part 

Of the court garden to have a good cry. 

It was while the salt tears were trickling down. 

And she was sore at heart, that she looked up : 

And behold ! she saw the Angel. This time 

He was nearer to her. His radiant form 

Seemed transparent it was so clean and holy ; 

And as he turned toward her the dark clouds 



SOXXET.S AXD LoVE SOXGS. 5^ 

That had been hovering above broke clear 

Into a thousand white fleecy wool packs, 

And through the gilt edge fissures burst the sun— - 

For in the Angel's countenance was enshrined 

Beneficence ineffable. He smiled, 

As Lily stretched her fevered hands toward him. 

And seemed to hesitate as though to speak. 

Before he slowly vanished from her sight* 

This second coming was the certain proof 
That her vision was no idle dreaming. 
Lily went from the spot re-sanctified 
With even firmer purpose in her life* 
iShe felt purified by but the vision 
Of one so pure, and only purity 
Of a high order could win her respect. 
Summer and Autumn and all the others 
Suffered beside the graces of The Angel. 
And hence Lily, though she grew more lovely 
And loveable, remained free and heartwhole. 
Yet not quite free ; for in her heart of heart— 
Too sacred to be even put in words — 
Was a trembling hope that perhaps some day- 
Some happy day far, far ahead— she might 
Become worthy of even The \ngel. 
So years slipped by. Her sisters passed away 
But still a virgin Lily went about 
Doing good. Many times she caught glimpses 
Of her ideal, gathering strength thereby. 
'Twas this very strength, this growing virtui% 
That was her never-failing attra<jUo44. 



60 SOXNETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 

Many hearts sighed in secret for her love 

As she sighed for the love of The Angel ; 

But restrained by their inferior life 

There were none who dared brook her rejection. 

Bat earnest faithful hearts reap their reward. 
Long years of silent selfless love speak loud. 
The Angel, who had watched her, saw her rise 
Above the passions of her lower sphere ; 
He saw her grow more lovely day by day ; 
Her fragrance reached him even in the sky. 
Until at las-t his heart was also touched 
And he made vow to woo her up on high. 
So when again within the garden fair 
Sweet Lily walked with constant upturned gaze 
He stood revealed so close that she might hear 
The rustle of his garment as he breathed. 
The pleasure of his nearness was so great 
She fell adoring at his shining feet. 
But stooping down he gently raised her up 
To stand beside him as his honored peer ; 
Then kissed her as a seal of sainted life ; 
And bore her up to heaven an AngeFs Bride. 



80NNETS AND LOVE SONG'S. 81 



A DKEAM OF FAIR WOMEN. 



One night while on my couch I was reclining, 

While just dozing — lightly dozing on my bed, 
I was treated to a vision so refining, 

That at first I feared the sight would turn my head. 
'Fore my eyes there passed along in slow succession 

All the fair ones who were famed in days of yore, 
Those enchantresses and charmers whose chief mission 

AVas to make proud, haughty man the sex adore. 

Goddess Flora led the van bedecked with flowers. 

Which she strewed on ev'ry side along her way ; 
While her smiles and rosy blushes fell like showers 

And refreshed my heated brain like scented spray. 
Arm in arm and tripping nimbly o^er the rosebuds, 

Came fair Dian and Euterpe on apace ; 
While Hygiea followed close upon their footstej)^, 

As they started off for pleasure in the chase. 

Quite enamored of their healthful grace and vigor, 

My senses for the moment seemed benumbed ; 
Till upon the scene appeared another figure. 

When my heart untouched as yet at last succumbed. 
It was Venus, goddess fair of Love and Beauty, 

Who, so perfect, buxom, sonsy, coy and sweet, 
Had at length my heart in earnest taken ca})tiYe, 

And niduced me to a s'iq)])liaiit at her feot. 



82 ?;ONXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 

But alas I the siren goddess left me mourning ; 

The procession of enchantment still went on, 
And my wounrfed heart at first within me burning 

Cooled at length until it joyed that she was gone : 
For with sober, stately tread came great Minerva, 

The patroness of Science and of Art, 
And the smile of recognition that she gave me 

Healed completely my lacerated heart. 

Well attended soon came Juno, queen of heaven. 

The fair guardian of married women's bliss ; 
Being single, I the shoulder cold was given, 

Which at first I felt inclined to take amiss. 
But Erato, who delights to honor lovers, 

And who sympathizes with them in their wrongs. 
Happened by most opportunely I imagined 

And sang back my peace of mind with tender songs. 

Then methought that fairest Helen, Troy^s perdition,. 

Followed hard Love's pretty muse upon the scene ; 
And at once I understood the fierce condition 

In which Paris, Priam's son, most once have been. 
And when Dido made her debut in the vision, 

I could swear that by the great eternal plan 
Not a mortal ever lived, except in fiction, 

AVho could spurn sucfi loveliness and yet be man. 

Next came Beatrice, whom Dante loved so dearly,. 

With Laura — Petrarch ^s Laura — by her side, 
Till quite stricken by their sweetness I sincerely 

Bemoaned with all Italia that they died. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 63 

Then Shakespeare's lovely fair ones next paraded, 
And I recognized distinctly as they passed 

Soft Ophelia, sweet Portia, good Cordelia, 
Loving Juliet, not the least if mentioned last. 

After this my dozing memory seemed to wander, 

Though the ladies loitered still upon the scene ; 
But among the last I noticed, I remember. 

Was the shapely form of Burns' bonny Jean. 
When, however, my Zetulba stood before me, 

All my frame in liquid bliss she seemed to steep : 
And the vision of fair women flitted from me. 

As in ecstasy I sighed myself to sleep. 



MY LOVE. 



My love is like a lily fair, 

My love is like a rose ; 
Her breath with fragrance fills the air, 

Her manner is repose. 
My love is very beautiful. 

My love is pure and sweet ; 
My love is very dutiful — 

Lacks naught to be complete. 

Her cheeks like morning glories, 

The glow of youth impart ; 
Her dimpled chin and rosy lips 

Would break x\pollo^s heart; 



64 SOKNETS AXD LOVE SONGS. 

Her smile, like sunlit heaven, 

Is radiant and divine, 
And speaks of untold happiness 

For all who make it shine. 

Her eyes, the battlements of love. 

Her weapons of defense, , 
Guard well that priceless jewel, 

A maiden ^s innocence ; 
Her brow so fair and noble. 

Adorns her queen-like face, 
Proclaims her high above the crowd. 

And wisest of her race. 



A TOO ONE-SIDED POET. 



Written on the banks of the St. Lawrence river, Canada, 

Though Burns has praised the banks o' Ayr, 
And rhymed with pride of bonnie Doon : 

Could he have dreamed 

What by me streamed, 
I fear he would have changed his tune. 

Tfiough he has sung of Mauchline belles; 
And of his sweet Torbolton lasses ; 

Yet 'fore my eye. 

One maiden coy, 
Far all his lovely belles surpasses. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 65 

He talks in raptures of his Jean, 
And of his darling Highland Mary ; 

But knew he well 

My noble Nell, 
His song would doubtless often vary. 



JEALOUSY'S FIKST PANG. 



Do I recall the picnic ? Are you mad ? 
Recall it when it burns me even noWo 
You mean the picnic that we boys got up 
When Nellie was the pre-acknowledged belle ? 
AVell rather ! and if you my friendship prize 
You'll never mention more that milestone dire. 

Recall that picnic — excuse me till I smile ! 
Ha, ha ! You do not see the joke ? Nor I. 
I've often wished I did. But list awhile ; 
I'll tell you what that picnic brings to mind ; 
And once you know you'll keep my secret safe ; 
For by your acts I've proved you are my friend* 

Robert and I were friends. His tall lithe form. 
His handsome features and his noble brow, 
Quite captivated all. And, as we stood 
Upon the corner that fine Summer morn 
Deciding who should be Ihc girls' escorts, 



€6 SONNETS ANT) LOVE SONGS. 

NelFs name was called. Each furtive eye glanced 
Eeluctant to give up the greatest, prize, [round 
And yet quite conscious that to hope was vain. 
Somehow at last all glances turned to me 
But I said : "No. Friend Robert is the man 
Give him the honor/' Though within my heart 
The world had been small price were I the one. 
But Kobert was as modest as myself ; 
"No, no — he would not go ; I was the man.'' 
So both protested till, in compromise. 
We laughingly consented both to go. 
• It was a foolish move I now admit ; 
But then it seemed the only method plain : 
So off we went — friend Robert and myself — 
The boys had chosen me and I chose him. 
He was in every way the only choice 
But Fate had marked me and I faced my Fate. 

Now we have reached and knocked at Nellie's door ; 
Expectantly we stand ; my heart loud thumps. 
She was to me the girl of all the world, 
And in a moment I would touch her hand : 
Hark ! There's her step. AVe bashfully retreat 
Into the farthest corner of the porch ; 
And then she came and opened wide the door. 
Then looked amazed to see that two had come. 
Within her hand she held four roses red 
And laughingly exclaimed : ''See what I've got ! 
I plucked them for the one who came for me ;" 
And then with such a grace I thought I dreamed 
She handed one to me— and thrp:e to him. 



SOJ^'XETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 67 

First I grew white. I felt my form contract. 
My fingers shriveled and my brow grew cold. 
The clammy sweat oozed out. My quivering lips 
Clung to my teeth and quite refused to speak. 
I did not faint and yet I had to lean 
Against the porch to keep upon my feet. 

Yes Eobert was my friend and, half ashamed, 

As she went off to bring the picnic fare 

He offered to divide more equally. 

But I said *'No'' and in a tone so short 

One might have thought he^d done some mortal sin. 

But that one word brought back my fleeing pride^ 

I would not let him see I cared a rap. 

Back with the pride came too the conscious blood 

And all my features seemed to be on fire. 

Then Nellie came and as she walked between 

I think I never was so full of life. 

I chirped and chatted like a dicky bird — 

And no one dreamed an arrow pierced my heart. 

Among the throng I mixed. You may recall 

How boisterous I dived in every sport. 

But if you can believe it, though so gay, 

I wept all day one constant inward stream. 

My heart was bleeding and I'd glad have died 

But hate for him and galled rankling pride 

Made me an Irving till I lived it down. 

But what about the rose ? I thought you'd ask ; 

I have it yet ; it's in my treasure cask ; 

And, though 'tis withered, still it shows the fc^rcc 

With which I crushed it in that luckless liour. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



Do I recall the picnic ? Are you mad ? 
Eecall it when it burns me even now ! 
You mean the picnic that we boys got up 
When Nellie was the all-acknowledged belle ? 
Well rather ! and if you my friendship prize, 
You'll never mention picnic lad again. 

Eecall that picnic ! Excuse me till I smile. 
Ha, ha ! Can't see the joke ? — No more can I — 
I've often wished I could. But think awhile : 
I've told you what that picnic brings to mind : 
And since you know you'll keep my secret safe — 
For by your acts I've proved you are my friend. 



AND SO SHE'S WED. 



And so she's wed. She who inspired 

The purest love that ever fired 

A poet's breast. Yes, she is wed ; 

And he is free. He who once fed 

With greedy eyes upon her smile 

And thought her flower from heaven's soil. 

Yes he is ''free." — How vain are words — 
*'In chains" more w^th his state accords: 
But that is not the term men use 
When passion can no more enthuse. 
They say they're free when hope is fied ; 
So he is free and she is wed. 



SONNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 



And since he's free and she is wed, 
'Tis meet his blessing should be said 
But woe ! his breast is burning hell : 
Upon her bliss he cannot dwell. 
It is a shame since he is free. 
Yet 'tis too true — for I am he. 

Yes I am he and she who's wed 

Was once in ages that are fled, 

My hope — the star that led me on ; 

In those sweet ages that are gone 

I dreamed, while perfume bathed my head^ 

I'd be the lover that she'd wed. 

But I can pray — God grant my prayer — 
That he (who may her sorrows share 
And by his kindness and his truth 
Make age for her a second youth) 
Will love her with the love here read: — 
Were I not free and she not wed. 



WHILE I AM WITH CELIA. 



How the winged moments fly ! 
Hours unnoticed pass me by ; 
Time is but a round of joy ; 
While I am with Celia. 



70 >^ONXETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 

AVhen in shine or shade we meet, 
Thrills of pleasure, how sweet! 
Cause my heart to louder beat, 
While I am with Celia. 

All forgotten is the care 
That within my breast I bear ; 
She alone is mistress there ; 
AVhile I am with Celia. 

AVhen by Luna's light we walk, 
'Witching rays around us flock ; 
Till in raptures wild I talk, 
While I am with Celia. 

With the purest, noblest zeal, 
'Neath her gaze inspired I feel ; . 
And her smile is honor's seal, 
While I am with Celia, 

I have sworn to be her friend, 
And may God my vow defend : 
Perfect are the hours I spend. 
While I am with Celia. 

May her days on earth be long ; 
May she never know a wrong ; 
And may life be one sweet song; 
Is my wish for Celia. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 71 



MEMORIES OF MILLACOMA. 



Millacoma Is the Indian name for a river In Oregon. Its 
poetical sound may have influenced imagination considera- 
bly in the story which this story tells. At all events. '^Josie" 
is no clue whatever to the identity of the person referred to. 

Near Millacoma^s mountain flood, 

My mem'ry often strays, 
To revel 'neath the virgin wood, 

That shades its rugged w^ays ; 
To think of times long since gone by, 

When hopeful, blithe and gay, 
AVith winsome little Josie I 

Beguiled my hours away. 

Its turgid; tossing, tireless tide, 

How oft with longing sigh » 

I've crossed, nor reck'd how swift or wide. 

With Josie in my eye ; 
While on the quickening current sped, 

The boundless deep to swell ; 
IVe lingered on the mossy mead. 

Where Josie used to dw^ell. 

And there in quiet by the shore 
l\e sat wliile songbirds trilhxl. 

And told the tale that oft before 
Less eager ears have fllk^d ; 

But now from Millacoma's stream 
I've wandered far away ; 



72 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

And Josie of my youthful dream 
No longer holds the sway. 

We loved — but time and distance both 

Conspired to oonquer Fate : 
And now while I am nothing loth. 

She trusts a truer mate : 
But still near Millacoma's flood 

My mem'ry often strays, 
To revel 'neath its shady wood, 

And muse on other days. 



THE STORM KINCx. 



4 



Outside the storm-king fumes and frets, 
While streaks of fire flash from his eye ; 

Against the pane a torrent beats, 
And distant rumblings rend the sky. 

But all oblivious of his wrath. 
Nor heeding e'en the lightning's dart, 

Within I sit and pledge my troth 
To Celia, guardian of my heart. 

To Celia, whom I've learned to love 
Far better than all else beside ; 

And who, imprompted from above. 
Has promised soon to be my bride. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 73 

What wonder then that all forgot. 
The wind bursts howling o'er the lea ? 

What wonder that the skies can plot 
Unheeded by my love and me ? 

Though hurricanes should never cease, 
Their fury I could long withstand, 

And deem my lot a life of peace, 
With Celia walking hand in hand. 



THE SOUL OF BEAUTY. 



When seas and rivers, vales and hills 

Divide me from fair Laura ; 
JN^or harp, nor bird wnth merry trills 

Can drive away my sorrow. 

Where'er 1 roam, how^ near or far, 
Through scenes for grandeur peerless; 

If they remind me not of her, 
Alas ! they will be cheerless. 

For Laura sprightly, sweet and pure, 

So full of Jove and duty.; 
With tender eyes and face denuire. 

To me is soul of beauty. 



74 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



FANCY'S VAGARIES. 



"While In CaJifornia 1 once met a pretty girl who was a 
very sweet singer. Among the songs with which she used to 
charm me 1 was particularly delighted with her rendition 
of ''The Fisherman and His Child," in the chorus of which 
my readers will remember are the words ''Come to me, I love 
thee," supposed to be chanted by angels to a drowning boy. 
After I first heard the song, it was several weeks before I 
could rid my memory of the refrain; and to get even svith 
the lovely creature whose voice so haunted me, I wrote:" 

In the stilly hours of midnight, 

While upon my cot I lay, 
Dozing, dreaming, sighing, scheming, 

Sick at heart with life's affray ; 
Through the dark and gloomy sadness 

Softly stole a voice I knew, 
And in tones of melting sweetness, 
Came its message kind and true. 
''Come to me, I love thee,'' 

Was the burden of refrain ; 
'•Come to me, I iove thee," 
Echo whispered back again. 

It was Celia's voice enticing. 

That subdued my panting breast : 
And I listened to its music, 

Soothed and wafted into rest. 
From above I saw her smiling, 

And my sorrows all took wing ; 
While with melody beguiling. 

She was tliere, and Love, and Spring. 



•80XN>:t8 and love songs. 75 

"Come to me, I love thee/' 

Softly sounded in my ear; 
"Come to me, I love thee,'' 

Softer still the accents dear. 

Then her lips upon my forehead 

Tenderly the vision placed ; 
And she kissed me as I slumbered. 
With a touch so pure and chaste. 
That my brain was bathed in perfume. 

And my soul in perfect bliss 
Caught again the tender message. 
Chaster e'en than loving kiss : 
'■'Come to me, I love thee," 

From afar the accents creep ; 
"Come to me, I love thee," 
Till I sank in sweetest sleep. 



THAT IS ALL. 



Only a package of letters, 

Entwined by a broken lace ; 
Only a bundle of fetters. 

That bind to a pretty face; 
Only some tokens of friendship, 

That had warmed, with increase, into love 
Only a bliss-blirdened message. 

And the web that was weaving is wove. 



76 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Only a tenderest parting. 

AVith promises — ne'er to be filled ; 
Only a teardrop starting, 

But ere it has fallen, chilled ; 
Only a misunderstanding. — 

A blundering, cruel mistake ; 
And yet, from pride still unbending,^ 

Two hearts are ready to break. 



BUT SHE IS MY COUSIN. 



Eefreshing and pure as the glistening dew drop 
That rests on the lily's pale bosom at dawn. 

Yet coy as Aurora when over the hill top 
She peeps, is the face of my fair Colleen Bawn, 

Her eye is the brightest, all nature confesses, 
And witching her glance as the light of the moon. 

Like the floss of the maize are her soft silken tresses ; 
Her smile e*en Apollo would crave as a boon. 

As boughsome her form as the breeze-bending willow ; 

More graceful her movements than those of a deer : 
Light-hearted and free as the foam-tossing billow ; 

This sweet little maiden has nowhere a peer. 

In truth, of her sex she is worth quite a dozen, 
A fact that one running need scarce stop to see ; 

And had not Fate cruelly made her my cousin, 
A nearer relation she some day might be. 



SOFNET^ AND LOVE :sONGS. 77 



THE OLD. OLD STORY. 



I know a lovely dark-eyed girl. 
With rosy cheeks and raven curl, 
With juicy lips and teeth of pearl, 

And dimpled chin distracting; 
Whose smile sets ev^ry brain awhirl, 

That comes in reach attracting. 

But yet for all her pretty face. 

Her lithesome form and girlish grace 

They are not worth describing space, 

Beside her charming manner ; 
While virtues in her heart have place, 

That fly perfection's banner. 

And this fair angel from on high 
Is mine, — I know not how or why — 
She yielded to each yearning sigh, 

I made with vow unswerving; 
And now, most blest of mortals, I 

Feel least of all deserving. 

But God be praised that e'er I met 
This lovely laughing-eyed brunette; 
I'd die to earai her pleasure yet. 

And free her from all sorrow. 
For her my sun shall rise and set 

On ev'ry coming morrow. 



7B SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



THE LOVEB'S FAREWELL. 



Fare thee well, bat not forever ; 

Though I cross tlie surging main^ 
Love like ours no sea can sever: 

We but part to meet again. 

Fare thee well, and may our parting 

Like a beacon ever burn, 
Telling not of news disheartening, 

But of hopeful, sw^eet return. 

Fare thee well ; and w^hen wath sorrov^ 
Time hangs heavy o'er your head, 

Think of me and that bright morrow^ 
When w^e'll share life's shine and shade. 

Fare thee well ; let no foreboding 
Steep your loving heart in gloom i 

With thy trust my footsteps goading,. 
I can conquer any doom. 



TWO DARLING LOVES. 



I have two loves, two darling loves : 

My Country and my Muse ; 
Though other loves prove faithless loves,. 

These always can entluise. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 79 

Unlike most loves these charmers sweet 

Consent my love to share ; 
And I with both their charms replete 

More love to each can spare. 

IVe loved my country many a year — 

Which I could not but choose — 
And that I might it more endear 

I vowed to woo my muse» 

I wooed my muse I^m glad to tell, 

And truly now confess : 
Did I not love my muse so well 

I'd love my country less. 

I love my muse with all my heart, 

For with her gentle skill, 
I'm abler in my country's part 

To sing her praises stilL 

1 love my country and in dreams 

Recall its beauties o'er ; 
For these give rise to many themes 

Where with my muse I soar. 

1 have two loves— two darling loves : 

My Country and my Muse; 
Though other loves prove faithless loves 

These always will enthuse. 



80 SOXNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 

I LINOxER STILL. 



I linger still, though Pleasure's smile 

Illumes the distant way ; 
Her hitherto unfailing wile 

Has lost all power to sway. 

I linger still, though Wisdom frowns. 

And urges me to go ; 
Her stern advice I leave to clowns, 

While I embrace my woe. 

I linger still, though from afar 

Ambition's voice I hear ; 
Unmoved I view the guiding star 

Of many a former year. 

I linger still, though Duty calls. 
In pleading tones, ''come back ;'' 

A stronger force my feet enthralls^ 
And blocks my homeward track, 

I linger still, nor blame my choice. 
Nor break the pleasing chain ; 

I've heard a tuneful siren's voice. 
And must perforce remain. 

For Cupid, coming unaware, 

So works my wav'ring will, 
That now, though heaven above despair. 

With Love I'll linger still. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 81 



HAPPY AT LAST. 



Zetulba loves me. Doubt has flown ; 
At last I know she is my own. 
For ere her eager lips can move, 
To testify her changeless love, 
A glistening eye — a glowing cheek. 
Still quicker, clearer, louder speak. 

Zetulba loves me. Who will deign 
To say my life's now lived in vain ? 
Since one so dainty, trim and neat. 
So pure of heart, so wise, so sweet, 
In no uncertain, wavering voice. 
Confesses me her only choice. 

Zetulba loves me. Bliss divine ! 

Was ever joy to equal mine ? 

The conqueror's crown, the hero's prize, 

May soar ambition to the skies ; 

But what can give the J)erfect rest, 

I And upon Zetulba's breast ? 

Zetulba loves me. God, I pray. 
Preserve her guileless on life's way ; 
May no dark tempest ever lower, 
To disenchant her waking hour ; 
And when she sleci)s, may angels sing. 
And lull with dreams of eiidh'ss Spring. 



82 



SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 



THE JILTED MAID'S LAMENT. 



Thou pale-faced moon, whose mournful light 
Steals ray less from the cloudless sky, 

List to a maiden's woful plight,— 
For thou alone must hear my sigh. 

I was not always thus forlorn ; 

My days were once but rounds of joy ; 
Life's scented rose showed no dread thorn, 

Nor did its gems hold base alloy. 

My happy heart was light and free ; 

And like the birds in yonder glen, 
I sang with merry, honest glee, 

Nor dreamt of care, or grief, or pain. 

But soon across my pleasant path 

A lover came with earnest eye, 
To pledge to me undying troth, 

And steal my peace with lover's sigh. 

For months upon his smile I dreamed, 
Like living act his vow appeared ; 

His lightest word truth's model seemed ; 
His frown my inmost conscience seared. 

But wo, alas ! my doting heart 

Was shattered by its only pride ; 
For, tiring of Love's fancied dart,' 

My idol flitted from my side. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 83 

Afar he roamed, nor turned again 

To seek the wreck he left behind ; 
While I must hide the killing pain, 

Nor show my grief to human kind. 

So pale-faced moon whose mournful light 

Steals rayless from the solemn sky, 
Keep thou the secret of my plight, 

While void of hope I droop and die. 



I LOVE YOU, 



^Twere useless, Celia, I confess, 
To longer hide my love for you ; 

Nor time, nor place can now impress 
Another image on my view. 

In waking hours your smiling face 
Inspires my thoughts with noblest themes. 

And when I rest in sleep^s embrace 
You are the angel of my dreams. 

Your form is mirrored on my heart, 

To live away from you is pain ; 
Sweet Celia, quick to me impart 

If I must love but love in vain. 



84 SONNETS AND L0V3E SONG'S. 

ZETULBA. 



Zetulba, unfortunately, is a purely ideal character. Her 
name and this poem in its entirety was suggested by the line, 
"My Zetulba, come reign o'er my soul," an alleged quotation 
from an old French song introduced by Victor Hugo into his 
great work, Les Miserables. 

When the early morn awakens 

All that lives and hopes and loves ; 
When Aurora lightly beckons 

To the meadows and the groves : 
Then for you, ray loved Zetulba, 

Throbbings o'er my bosom roll ; 
And I yearn to have thee, darling, 

Eeigning queen within my soul. 

When the heat and glare of noonday, 

Leaves the ground all cracked and dry ; 
And the cattle seek the shade trees ; 

And a haze pervades the sky : 
Then — then too — my loved Zetulba, 

Throbbings o'er my bosom roll : 
And I yearn to have thee, darling, 

Keigning queen within my soul. 

When the ruddy trail of daylight, 

Fast is fading in the west ; 
And the soft and quiet shadows 

Soothe and wrap the world to rest : 
Then, yes then, my loved Zetulba, 

Throbbings o'er my bosom roll ; 
And I yearn to have thee, darling, 

Keigning queen within my soul. 



SOJTKET.S A?TD LOVE SON■Gfe^ 85 

Fair Zetulba, sweet Zetulba, 

Dearest gaardian of my heart, 
Life would seem not worth the living,, 

If from thee I had to part. 
If thou wouldst, my lovely fair one. 

Cheer the life in your control ; 
Say that you, oh sweet Zetulba ! 

Will reign o^er my troubled souL 



MOMENTS OF MUSING. 



Once, out in the wilds of Alaska, 

'Neath tents we had raised by the shore 
With Steve, a prospector and miner, 

My whilom companion galore ; 
While silently nursing a camp-fire 

That crackled as hemlock fires do, 
My thoughts in a moment of musing, 

Took flight, sweet Zetulba, to you. 

I saw once again the St. Lawrence — 

The pride of my boyhood and youth— 
Whose current majestic flows onward, 

As swift and unfailing as truth ; 
Victoria bridge, in the distance. 

Lay serpent-like spanning its flood ; 
While steamboats beneath the mid archway 

Dragged volumes of smoke as they sped. 



86 S0NXET8 AND LOVE SONGS. 

On the hillside, the deaf mute asylum, 

The dome of St. Peters so tall ; 
The Windsor and other great buildings, 

Eecalling to mind Montreal, 
Were each, with Mount Royal as background. 

Distinctly portrayed to my view ; 
But strange as it sounds, my Zetulba, 

Their forms seemed all blended in you. 

Th^ occasional bang of the marksman ;* 

The din in the boiler-shop made ; 
The noise of the anvil and hammer. 

As workingmen plied at their trade ; 
The shriek of the outgoing engine ; 

The rattling of carts on the street ; 
Though at one time the bore of existence 

Now fell on my ears as a treat. 

I heard, through it all, your sweet laughter, 

Ind felt for the moment your joy ; 
The same thrill of pleasure came o^er me. 

As gladdened my hours while a boy : 
I thought, as I gazed on your beauty. 

So real and transparently pure. 
How oft it inspired me to duty, — 

To deeds that might always endure. 



*At one time there were shooting ranges located at Ft. St. 
Charles, an outlying portion of Montreal^ where volunteers 
and private marksmen used to keep their hand and eye in 
practice. 



^M: 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 87 

Those hours of the past came to memory, 

When in flights of fancy and love 
I traced out a fame-laureled pathway 

Whereon to win you I must move. 
And now, though the hope that allured me 

Has slowly dissolved from the scene. 
Like fire that is kindled by matchwood, 

I burn with ambition as keen. 

Some day when Vve followed my hobby, 

Till the acme of fame has been reached, 
1^11 credit your womanly glances 

With the sermons inspiring they've preached ; 
And I'll prove to the wayAvard and doubting 

The worth of the praise I repeat, 
By gathering the fame and the laurels 

And throwing them all at your feet. 



IN A SONG BOOK. 



(Presented to a dear little lady friend.) 
Some people are always bemoaning their fate 

And wailing the luck that seems always too late ; 
But let us be wise and set worries a-winging: — 
Since life must be lived why not live through it 
singing. 



88 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



WESTERN ZEPHYRS. 



Oh come to the West, Zetulba, 

To the far away AYest with me ; 
Oh come and be mine, my loved one, 

The star of my hope to be. 
The East may have ties that can tether 

To childhood's departing gleam, 
But we'll find in the West, together, 

The bliss of a poet's dream. 

The sky in that world of wonder 

But seldom is clouded o'er ; 
No rattle of breaking thunder 

Would startle your slumbers more ; 
The fields, and the forests, and flowers 

There smile is perennial spring. 
While the birds from evergreen bowers 

In song that is ceaseless sing. 

By the side of the boundless ocean, 

In a cottage mid roses lost, 
We could hallow our heart's devotion, 

Away from the wearisome host ; 
The fires of our youthful affection 

Need never grow cold or dim ; 
For our life, under love's subjection. 

Would glide like a vesper hymn. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 89 

Then come to the West, Zetulba, 

To the far away West with me ; 
Oh come and be mine, my loved one, 

The charm of my life to be. 
The East may have ties that can tether 

To childhood's departing gleam, 
But we'll find in the West together 

The bliss of a poet's dream. 



ONLY SOME VIOLETS. 



Only some violets — daintily pressed — 
Tied together with soft silken bands, 
By loving, trembling, far-away hands, 

And placed in a letter to me addressed : 
Eloquent violets ! 

Eloquent violets — blue as the sky — 

Pluct^ed from the mead with tenderest care, 
That they a message of love might bear, 

A message of love that will never die^ 
Like withering violets. 

Withering violets— bu^ oh so dear! 
.That language fails to describe my bliss. 
As fondling them over with longing kiss, 

I think of the loved one who sent to cheer; 
Only some; violets. 



90 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



DESERTED. 



I'm lonely without you tonight, dear, 

As lonely as lonely cen be ; 
I'm nothing, you've told me, to you dear, 

But you are the whole world to me. 

Oh w^hy did you once say you loved, dear^ 
Loved me as none e'er loved before ; 

Oh why did you wait till my heart, dear. 
Had knitted you into its core ? 

Oh why, when my bliss was complete, dear. 
When heaven and earth were as one, — 

Oh why did you — why did you change dear ? 
And rob my life's day of its sun. 

But I am to blame for the blight, dear ; 

God surely is chastening me ; 
For oh I'm so lonely tonight, dear, 

As lonely as lonely can be. 



LOVE'S DREAM IS O'ER. 



Love's happy dream is o'er ; 

I waken with a start ; 
To find inflamed and sore 

My wounded liea-rt. 



SOXXETS AND LOYE SOXGS. 91 

The state I thought was life — 

So sweet it seemed and real — 
Was bat the lull of strife 

That now I feeL 

I fixed my highest aim 

Upon a woman's troth ; 
God steeped my hope in shame 

To show^ his wrath. 

She who mid streaming tears 

Had sworn eternal love ; 
Ere yet the months were years 

Foresworn did prove. 

But I can bear my fate ; 

A worse I might deplore ; 
Had I have learned too late: 

Love's dream was o'er. 



TO Ox\E I LOVE. 



My Gentle Louisa, the kindest of sweethearts; 

A solace in sorrow ; a fountain of joy ; 
The truest of true loves ', the dearest of dear liearts : 

Be tliat peace thy portion no storm can destroy. 



92 SOXXETS AXD LOVE SONGS. 

Thy smile haunts my waking — e'en now it is beaming — 
Though distance divides us I see thy fair face ; 

And when slumbers bind me, I feel in my dreaming. 
Thy lips pressing mine in impassioned embrace. 

Thou darling consoler,, like warmth of bright sunlight^ 
Or balm of cool zephyr in Summerland skies ; 

A song in thy praise is a song of the moonlight — 
That soft wistful moonlight I see in thine eyes- 

So gentle Louisa, my kindest of sweethearts ; 

My solace in sorrow j my fountain of joy ; 
My truest of true loves ; my dearest of dear hearts -: 

May heaven grant thee peace that all earth can't 
destroy. 



WAS IT A PROOF? 



'Twas Autumn ; and the wailing wind 

Foretold of Winter nigh, 
As bleak and blind, it vainly pined 

To change the cheerless sky : 
When with Zetulba by my side — 

Her hand, in promise, mine — 
I craved (nor tried my doubts to hide> 

Of love some surer sign. 



BONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 93 

'Twas in a garden that we stood, — 

A plot her skill had made ; 
Where 'mong its flowers in musing mood 

She oftentimes had strayed. 
But now its beds, of beauty shorn, 

Were dead, unkempt and bare ; 
What leaves were left shook all forlorn 

And desolate in air. 

One only flower remained to tell 
Of garden glory fled ; 

A pansy — heedless of the knell 
That low its comrades laid. 

Still fresh and sweet, it raised aloft 
Its bosom to the sky, 

And dared the fates to show their hates- 
It simply WOULD not die. 

And as I pressed, with lover's zest, 

My darling's trembling hand ; 
And begged once more some token sure 

Of Cupid's magic wand ; 
-She stooped — and though the season's last. 

Her garden's only plea — 
She plucked that pansy from the waste. 

And handed it to me. 



94 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



DOUBT. 



If you were more than human, dear, and still 
Could love me as you say you love me now : 

Then might my heart leap forth unloosed by will — 
Then might I fondly whisper vow for vow. 

If like Endymion enamored of the moon, 
I could feel certain of immortal love ; 

Your vows would dip me in enraptured swoon, 
And my own passion would as deathless prove. 

But though a jewel of tho greatest worth, 
Alas ! you're only mortal, and your sheen, 

Like flaming opal when a cloud creeps forth, 
AVill change its semblance and its ardor keen. 

I may perchance in hurrying to high goal, 
S^turnble on unseen rock and headlong fall : 

You see the hap but when you might console 
Alas my trouble is love's gloomy pall. 

Perchance my progress is so very fleet 
I get beyond your woman's tardy ken : 

And pay the price of seeing at your feet 
Some slower lover who will woo like men. 

Perhaps, though striving, I am quite outstripped 

By one more capable to win a palm ; 
When straight my soaring hopes are ruthless clipped : 

And, from his arms, you look upon me calm. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 95 

Yes, sweet ; you are but mortal — frail though fair — 
I dare not dip too deep in love's soft stream ; 

I dare not place my passion in your care ; 
Lest rude awaking prove it all a dream. 

You are bat human, dear — His all too true — 

And if I let my love become my life ; 
E'en such a woman, dear, I still might rue. 

And curse the fate that gave me such a wife. 



OLD WORDS TO A NEW TUNE. 



One, Orpheus, so the ancients tell. 

Went down to Pluto's dark abode. 
With harp in hand to conjure hell 

To give him back the spouse he lo'ed ; 
And through the horrors searching well, — 

Nor quailing at the endless strife. 
To tuneful string at every cell 

Sang: Where in Hades is my wife ? 

Though modern busbands quite forget 

To visit Pluto's realm of night. 
When coming home in angry fret 

They find their darlings out of sight ; 
Yet still as through the house they prowl 

In futile search for dish or knife, 
Like Orpheus of old they howl : 

Oh where in Hades is my wife ? 



96 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



THE DAWN OF HOPE. 



These two stanzas^ composed in the Bummer of 1S8B, have 
the particular distinction of being a poet's first tribute at 
the Shrine of Love. 

Oh ! how my breast swells up with joy ! 

The world can hold no happier boy ; 

With pride I dance along the street ; 

And my glad heart, how it does beat ! 

Oh ! how sweet memories bathe my brain? 

Love's bliss throughout my soul doth reign : 

Can it be so, — or was I blind ? — 

To me fair Ida seemed quite kind. 

I think His true, but fearing still, 
I wait her awe-inspiring will ; 
And oh ! if right my eyes have been ; 
No subject could adore his queen 
So fondly as I will her grace — 
The fairest of God's fairer race ; 
And as the acme to my bliss, 
1*11 beg of her one loving kiss. 



THEIR YANKEE DOODLE-DO. 



When loss of dower unties the string 

Of titled dudes who woo ; 
Some Yankee maids first learn to sing 

Tlieir Yankee dude 'ill do. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 97 



A LESSON IN GRAMMAR. 



I LOVE — and lo ! the world till now so plain 

Has changed its hue and like my love grows sweet ; 

There are no heights I may not now attain : 
My state long wanting is at last complete. 

Thou lovest — and thy very sighs contain 

A charm that dims all other charms of thine ; 

For with thy love — oh balm for dizzy brain — 
There comes the hope that all these charms are mine. 

He loves— nor can I blame his perfect taste ; 

Since his true choice has chose the bud most fair. 
His love, though weak near mine, is not all waste : 

For it has shown how high his soul may dare. 

We love — and with our latest breath will stand 
To shield thee from the shafts that envy send ; 

Till with such champions at thy dear command 
Thy happiness need never know an end. 

You LOVE — but holdl oh hollow-mocking fatei 
Am "I'^ the object or is ''he'' your love ? 

Can it be possible that him I hate 

Who late seemed honest ? — so alas I prove. 

They love — and only they, all lovers swear, 

Who, on the path where even heaven must move, 

Are jealous of the gem they hold most rare ; 
And quickly quarrel with divided love. 



98 SONNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 



PLACENTIA BAY. 



A lovely place on the coast of Newfoundland where the 
remains of an old French fort are to be seen although in dis- 
use froni away back in 1700. 



Placentia Bay ! Placentia Bay ! 
To thee my fitful fancies stray. 

Not that thy charms of beach and cove. 
Alone can urge my thoughts to rove ; 

Though truly few with them may share 
The grandeur of thy landscape rare. 

Not e^en thy storied hill and fort, 
Can echo here their loud report 

Of battles fought, of victories won, 
Of daring deeds by heroes done. 

Too far alas my fortunes lead, 

For themes like these to cause me heed ; 

And were they all that you could boast, 
My thoughts of you must soon be lost. 

Ah no ! upon thy waters free, 
I met a maiden fair to see ; 

Her name was Donna, and her face 
Betokened every maiden grace. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



Born by a stream that swells thy flood ; 
Eeared neath thy shady virgin wood ; 

Far from the crowd's distracting jeer, 
She grew in sweetness year by year. 

Her eyes — two orbs of tender brown — 
Could change to smiles the densest frown ; 

Her quivering lip, her blushing cheek. 
Her heaving bosom all could speak, 

And tell of innocense and love, 
And virtues fresh from heaven above. 
With nature's music kept in tune, 
As near thy wave she held commune. 

Her heart unstained by worldly feud, 
Was pure and true and wholly good. 

Whoever felt refreshing shower. 
Or perfume from an opening flower ; 

Whoever saw Aurora rise, 

And spread her sheen o'er Summer skies ; 

May part surmise the pleasant days, 
I spent beneath fair Donna's gaze, 

Ochone ! but perhaps ^tis for the best 
That she is East while I am West. 

Yet for her sake with grateful lay, 
I'll sing thy praise FlaceJitia Kay. 

LofC. 



IQQ SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 



THE SECRET. 



Oh Jess I I have a secret that I've promised not to tell ;. 

It's all about our wedding — I know you wish us well — 

I told Tom when he asked me Fd keep the whole thing^ 
dark. 

Me thought if we could, keep it *'mum" 'twould be am 
awful lark, 

So when we fixed the first of May says I to Tom : my 
love 

Although I like the name of Stark I will not faithless^ 
prove, 

And while that name will then become my very, very- 
own , 

Upon my word I'll never tell a solitary one. 

I'm going to wear a satin dress — a lilac trimmed with 
cream. 

And oh ! if you could see my veil ; it is a perfect dream ; 

My sister Sue will be the maid, and in the honeymoon. 

We're going to visit Tom's old home upon the river 
Doon ; 

But there^s my car. Excuse me Jess ;: I really must 
away — 

We're going to live at Woodlands that fronts on Sun- 
set Bay -y 

The wedding won't be veryjlarge — Tom only wants a 
few — 

I think it's quite a jolly joke to keep it dark— don^t 
you? 



'SON^NETS AND LOVE SOKGS-. 101 



TESSIE CASEY. 



IWe a sweetheart so bewitching, 
She has set my heart aflame ; 
.She's a colleen from old Ireland :^ 

Tessie Casey is her name. 
Every day I go to see her, 

And my life is made divine ; 
For she tends upon the table 
At the salon where I dine. 

She's a charmer, all admit it. 

All say Tessie's oat of sight ; 
Just to have her wait upon him 
Gives a man an appetite. 

;She has cheeks that shine like roses, 

And a chin that breaks men's hearts^ 
In her eyes so large and tender, 

Cupid stores his choicest darts. 
O'er her forehead smooth and regal. 

Cluster shocks of raven curls ; 
While her ruddy lips distracting, 

Hide two rows of whitest pearls. 

But the reason she's my sweetheart.; 

That I sing her praises true ; 
Is because she says she loves me — 

When there's nothing else to do : 
Is because when hunger haunts me. 

And I long for bread and meat, 
From the kitchen comes Miss Casey 

Bringing all .1 wish to eat. 



102 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



LOVE ON A RANCH. 



In the early hours of morning, 

When the birds begin to sing ; 
And the sun with flash-light warning 

Calls the busy bee to wing, 
I am startled by a tapping 

On my chamber's bolted door, 
While a voice disturbs my napping, 
And puts short a blissful snore r saying 
Chorus — 
^' Wake up, wake up, the early birds are singing ; 
•'Wake up, wake up, it's nearly half past four; 
"'Wake up, wake up, the breakfast bell is ringing, 
''Wake up, sweetheart,'' and rattle goes the door. 

As I hear the merry summons, 

'Fore my eyes there comes a face ; 
And I see the laughing features 

Of the rancher's daughter Grace, 
And I doze again forgetful, 

Dreaming I'm in Paradise, 
Till once more I hear the accents 

Of that fascinating voice : saying 
Chorus — 

All the peace that song engenders 

In my lone and aching heart, 
I would fain — but nature hinders — 

To the world at large imparts 



SONNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 103 

Oh how pleasant ! if forever 
O'er life's changing, troubled deep, 

I could hear that voice enticing, 
Eousing me from morning sleep : saying 
Chorus — 



HOPELESS LOVE, 



At the house v^here I live there are two pretty girls 
One of whom is called 'Liz' and has raven black curls ; 
While the other is ' Jen^ with a willowy form — 
And my heart for them both grows surprisingly warm. 

When I'm down at the table consuming my meal, 
My thoughts turn to 'Jen' with a feverish zeal ; 
I watch her intent — and in every move 
I see some new grace that increases my love, 

But when I am through and return to my room, 
My love for dark 'Liz^' once again starts to bloom ; 
Each word that she utters makes fiercer the fire 
Till I grow like a furnace of love and desire. 

But alas and alack ! I'm but one of a crowd 
Who of Lizzie and Jennie are hopel-essly proini ! 
8ince favors for rivals all too freely each spreads — 
For it's 'Jen' waits on table, and 'Liz' makes th^e beds. 



104 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



LITTLE KATHY KIND HEART. 



Though fond lovers praise some Minerva's high charms ; 
Or boast of the bliss in a Venuses arms ; 
I'll willingly yield them their most loved embrace, 
If kindness for me kindles Kathy's sweet face. 

Fair Kathleen acushla ! Your good deeds so shine : 
Vain, vain are your efforts their light to confine. 
While modesty still would hide qualities true — 
The hiding of virtues but gains them their due. 

You would not pretend to outrival false Troy : 
No wiles of yours sure would a Csesar decoy : 
Yet deep in your heart you have treasures in store, 
To hold him who wins you — my Kathy asthore. 

What signifies learning if heartlessness guides ; 
Who long values beauty where folly abides ? 
No birthright can call forth a throe that will last : — 
But love won by kindness is never surpassed. 

So loud let me sing thee, my Celtic colleen ; 
My dear little, true little, gentle Kathleen : 
Who is there could wish for a lovelier prize. 
While kindness for him kindles Kathy's kind eyes. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 105 



MAGGIE THOKP. 



Ye Muses list, while I relate 

The sorrows of a lover true ; 
And if youVe power to mend my fate, 

Still let me not in sorrow sue. 
I met the dearest little dame — 

(In vain I tune my wayward harp, 
The sweetest music sounds so tame. 

If I but think of Maggie Thorp). 

I met her, as I said before. 

And straightway Cupid pierced my heart ; 
And now I gaze — admire — adore, 

But can't withdraw that cruel dart. 
Her eyes ! eh ecstacy divine ! 

Forgive ye gods, nor with me carp. 
When I declare "yours cannot shine, 

As do the eyes of Maggie Thorp.'' 

Her lips ! and do I not succumb ? 

Why is it that I do not die ? 
Less blissful thoughts have made me dumb, 

While now I'm able e'en to sigh. 
Her lips ! Once more let me repeat 

That synonym of heav'nly joy : 
That one could find two lips more sweet 

Than Maggie Thorp's I must deny. 



106 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

And then her hair ! By Jove : — but hold, 

To swear but aggravates my woe ; 
Though reason tells me, "be controlled/' 

I'm reckless 'cause I love her so. 
Her witching smile ! (Restrain me, AVill, 

Lest violence should reign supreme) 
Her smile makes less each waking ill, 

And haunts to gladden ev'ry dream. 

My plaint is this, — and now, Queen Muse, 

Come close that you my woes may hear, 
My loved one smiles and smiles profuse : — ' 

And lo ! 'tis that that makes me drear : 
She smiles — but on another swain— 

Which threatens all my plans to warp ; 
For life can be but grief and pain, 

Unless I wed my Maggie Thorp. 



WORDS TO THE WISE. 



Boys take what's to spare 

Of the kisses girls share 
With every Tom, Richard and Harry ; 

But mark you my dears : 

Such bliss turns to tears : — 
It's the maid that's least kissed that men marry, 



SONNETS xVND LOVE SONGS. 107 



THE ST. FRANCIS. 



This is a river in Canada flowing into the St. T^awrence by 
way of the Richelieu, At Richmond, one of the oldest towns 
3n the Province of Quebec, the view across the 8t Francis to 
the Melbourne side is one of the most entrancing it has ever 
been the author's privilege to see. 

Where St. Francis rippling flows, 

O'er its shallow pebbled bed, 
'Tw^ixt fair Melbourne's maple rows, 
And the lazy dust that blows 

Over Richmond's hoary head. 

There I met a maiden fair, — 
Bright blue eyes and flossy hair, 
Full of laughter, full of fun, — 
Venus aud herself were one ; 
And her name w^as Edith. 

To become her lover bold, 

To stroke down those locks of gold, 

With impunity and ease, 
Was my constant wish and aim ; 
So her maidenship to tame 

I did all I could to please. 

I had nearly won her heart. 
And was overwhelmed with bliss, 
In prospect that she soon would be my bride ; 
When my fortunes bade me part 
From this lovely little Miss ; 
And all my grief and pain the fates defied. 



108 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Still I think of old St. Francis 
As it ripplingly glides on : 
Though away from it I far and farther roam ; 
But the charm that most enhances 
Lies its fertile banks upon, 
And is found within a little maiden^s home. 



A MAIDEN'S SONG. 



While residing ror a time in southern California, the author 
met his proverbial fate In the person of a beautiful little 
damsel whose first name was Grace. Neither attention nor 
poetry, however, could distract her thoughts from a certain 
gentleman some few hundred miles away, who, it appeared, 
struggled under the aristocratic cognomen of Clyde. In 
sheer desperation, therefore, he finally gave her this song to 
show his virtuous decision of submitting to the inevitable. 

The hours flit past with merry speed ; 

The birds sing in the trees ; 
The daisies bloom upon the mead, 

And scent the zephyr breeze. 
But all too slowly time creeps on ; 

Unheard the songsters chide ; 
For still I sigh from dawn to dawn 
To see my darling Clyde. 

Chorus — 
My lovely Clyde, my manly Clyd^, 

The idol of my heart ; 
1 long to nestle by his side, 
And never more to part. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 109 

A time there was when free as air 

I blithely sang of love ; 
But now, entrapped in Cupid's snare. 

My thoughts such joy reprove, 
Far from the darling of my choice 

The world seems wild and wide,, 
How can a love-sick maid rejoice 

When parted from her Clyde ? 
Chorus- 
But I'll not brood upon my woes : 

Nor rue my lot severe ; 
For Time and Distance, present foes. 

Will give me back my dear. 
Then let me dry my tear-stained face. 

And true, whatever betide, 
I'll always be his loving Grace, 

And he my darling Clyde. 
Chorus — 



NOT CONCISE ENOUGH. 



(On bearing a little man refer to his large wife as his ''bet- 
ter half.'^) 

Your "better half' say you ? Well that takes the cake I 
For telling the truth you'll not rank among martyrs. 

To your wife sir, and quick an apok^jgy make : 
According to weight she^s your better three-quarterji* 



110 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



MY DILEMMA. 



I've two little sweethearts called Violet and Fred, 
And I'm in a quandary which I will wed ; 
For Violet's so pretty — and Fred is so true — 
That really I cannot decide what to do. 

In the evening wiien work and its w^orry is o'er, 
It is Fred that I meet at the opening door ; 
Yet scarce am I seated when down at my feet, 
My slippers are landed by Violet sweet. 

It is Violet that asks for a peep at my watch ; 

It is Violet cries "cook" and expects me to catch ; 

It is Violet that sets me great 'posers' to spell ; 

And at last for my denseness chastises me well. 

But it's Freddy, the darling, who sits on my knee ; 

It is Fred tells me stories to add to my glee ; 

It is Fred pulls my moustache and strokes down my 

chin ; 
And enfondles and hugs me my graces to win. 

When Violet teases and asks about girls, 
Fred comes to the rescue by talking of squirrels ; 
Or when I grow jealous of Violet's "young man ;" 
'Tis Fred soothes my feelings as only Fred can. 

I've two little sweethearts called Violet and Fred, 
But I'm in a quandary which I will wed ; 
For oh ! let me whisper the woes that annoy : 
Miss Violet won't have me — and Fred is a boy. 



SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. Ill 



POETIC LICENSE. 



I've been fickle ; well I know it ; 

As my ardor has been rare, 
'Tis my province as a poet 

To be free as vagrant air. 

You, who blame me, may remember 
Vows eternal you have sworn, 

In Love's May that in December 
Into shreds were ruthless torn. 

Chide not then, since, while it lasted, 
Like a furnace was my vim ; 

Burning love, though early blasted, 
Is worth years of lukewarm whim. 

One REAL kiss— one moment's rapture ; 

Though that moment passion dies — 
One uxcoMMON throe wields sceptre 

O'er a thousand commox sighs. 

Every maid that I have courted 

Is the better for the bliss ; 
Though the fervor that transported, 

Now transports another Miss. 

Yes I'm fickle — well I know it— 
I've been restless as the dawn. 

'Tis the duty of a poet 
To wake love and then jiass on. 



112 SOXXETS AXD LOVE SONGS. 



RELIGION VS. LOVE. 



They loved, since first by chance they met, 

Though years had come and gone ; 
In Jack, Kate thought the sun must set ; 

In Kate, Jack saw the dawn. 
They had engaged to share life's load, — 

And ere a day has flown, 
Their souls o'er single thought will brood : 

Their fond hearts beat as one. 

Jack loved her for her pretty face, 

Her laughing eyes of blue. 
Her happy smile, her girlish grace, 

Her promise to be true. 
What though she is of Romish faith. 

In it she feels secure : 
It is her w^ay of cheating death, 

iVnd helps to keep her pure. 

Kate loved him for his manly form, 

So strong, and lithe and tall ; 
And for a heart so brave and warm, 

That nothing could appal. 
"Quite true he does not serve the Pope 

But when we both are wed. 
To save his soul I still have hope ; 

I'll win him round," she said. 



SOTS-NETS AST) LOVE SOXGS. 13.3 

x\nd so for one short fleeting hour 

Before the knot is tied. 
They meet again in happy bower, 

To nestle side by side. 
Entranced they view each other's charms.; 

Till mantling o'er with bliss, 
•Close locked in ever tightening armrs. 

They kiss as lovers kiss. 

And now, expectant bride and groom, 

Before a priest they stand :; 
Prepared (nor dream of coming doom ^ 

To answer each demand. 
"**Are both of Eomish faith ?'' quoth he; 

"Not I" the bridegroom said-; 
■^'Then by the churches high decree 

You cannot here be wed." 

''Not wed,'' cried Jack, ^'what mean you pray?'' 

"Just this." the priest replied : 
""Unless the creed of Rome you say, 

You can't claim Romish bride." 
■^'Then ere I lie to win a wife," 

Said Jack in words that burned; 
"^'I'll live a bachelor for life ;" 

And on his heel he turned. 

Aghast Kate stood, nor called him back; — 

Here love had no control ; 
If she were true to Love and Jack, 

,She'd Jose her erring soul. 



114 SONNETS AND T.OYIE SONGS. 

She'd lose her soul ; oh fearful fate ! 

Alas it must not be ; 
And from the church disconsolate, 

She wanders listlessly. 
■?«• * * * -x- ^ *. * ^ 
Long years have flown, but still apart 

The cheerless couple stray ; 
Jack scorns the love of other heart ; 

And Katy fades away. 
They must not wed the church has said ; 

Kate cannot change her faith ; 
Thus kindred souls asunder torn, 

Await their hastening death.- 

Await their death. Yet who will say- 
That when they cross the bar, 

Eeligious fears despite their tears. 
Can keep them still afar. 

No ! No ! They're married now in truth r 
And when they pierce the gloom, 

The seeds of Love that blessed their youth. 
In rejoined hearts will bloom. 



A STUDY. 



She leans with one arm on an easy chair ; 

One knee lightly presses its cushioned seat ; 

She stares into distance. The steady beat 
Of the gossippy clock startles the air. 



SO.NXETS AND LOYE SONGS. 11^ 

Near her in silence oppressively deep, 
The piano stands with its keyboard bare. 

The twilight is falling, and everywhere 
The shadow^s of even begin to creep.. 

Her hands hang inert-; till up through the gloom 
One steals to the keyboard ■; whence soft and low 
A chord like the sighing of endless woe 

Quick harrows the soul of that vacant room. 

Hjtrim. Fate trains the touch or her -brooding fears, 
iVnd shatters the door to her inmost he-art: 
Exposing a love sh^ had bade depart : — 

A love that now mocks her repentant tears. 



KATY GN BUDES. 



■*'Your pet names are awfully good^^ 
j(Said gentleman John, as h^ wooed,) 

"But Katy my queen, 

"State just what you mean, 
"When y Oil -call me your dandiest dude.^ 

Then with smile that outrivaled the dawn. 
Said cold cruel Katy to John.: 

"A dude is a thing, 

"That girls get in Spring, 
'•To hang a chrysauthcimum on/' 



116 SONNETS AND LOVE SOXGS, 

THE SKUGOG. 



This peculiarly named Canadian s^tream Is a connecting 
link in the chain of lakes that almost joins the Georgian 
Bay with Lake Ontario. The Town of Lindsay is situated 
upon it, and by too free a use of dams near that place the 
river has orerflown ita banks in many places. The trees 
with which these banks were at one time covered have died 
off, leaving nothing now but innumerable stumps to tell of 
their departed ^lory. 

Though I cannot be ecstatic in my praises, 

Of thy sullen, murky waters stealing on ; 
Yet, ohSkugogI I can singabout the "daisies*^ [upon^ 

That are nurtured, watched and reared thy shores 
Though the stumps that stem thy tide when it is swollen 

Are unpicturesque, unlovely, humid, dank ; 
Many beauties — nature^s beauties — have been lavished 

With a generous profusion on thy bank. 

To enumerate them all would take a life -time, 

Yet to pass one by unnoticed seems unkind, 
So to strike the happy mean and make the verse rhyme 

I will merely name what beauties come to mind. 
There is Martha, charming Martha, like a rosebud. 

Shedding beauty, perfume, pleasure all around ; 
Making life for those w^ith whom she comes in contact 

AVith continual surprises to redound. 

There is Laura, dark-eyed Laura, tall and slender. 
The desired of all desirings that is known ; 

Full of passion, strongest passion, yet so tender. 
For her rashness her good traits do quite atone. 



BoK^^ETs AND Love bongs. 117 

While Jeanie, with her regal gait and carriage, 

Her nobleness of character and mien^ 
Her pure and honest face nought could disparage, 

Shines o'er her sex a veritable queen. 

"Then there's laughing Bert, the essence of good nature. 

The picture of enjoyment and of f un ; 
With contentment true engrax^ed on ev'ry feature-^ 

Grand and only the inimitable one. 
While her bosom friend and confidant, fair Nellie, 

An open-hearted, frank and loving girl, 
With her silv'ry peals of merry -toned iaug&ter, 

Is to qualify correct a very pearl. 

And there's Bessie — simple-^hearted little Bessie, 

Full of pity, of endearing ways and wiles ; . 
'True as steel and like a sun-show'r I confess me. 

When through tears burst forth her winsome, happj 
smiles. 
Or there's Aggie, quite as witty a-s she's gushing, 

In company the acme of desire. 
Where she cannot help but be so entertaiaiing, 

That even an Apollo she'd inspire. 

And then again — hut there, that's quite sufficient 

To set my wond'ring readers all agog^ 
And though my weak pen-painting is deficient, 

They'll wish themselves beside the old Skugog. 
ilf I cannot be ecstatic in noy praises 

Of thy sullen, murky waters stealing on ; 
Yet oh Skugog ! I can sing about the "daisies" 
Tliat are nurtwnu] ,watch(Hl and rejvn^d thy sliores upon.. 



118 SOFXETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 



BEAUTY'S CONQUEST. 



(With apologies to Caesar:) 

'Twas in that cheerless season when from earth's facp 

the bleak and chilly winds of "Winter have ruthless 

chased all hope of present Joy and pleasure ; 

when Nature sovereign dame appears her very 

trust in truth to have deserted ; and when 

the frozen ground in shame its coldness 

hides beneath a veil of snow — 

SJie came. 

And at her comings as if by magic touch, our hearts 

so lonely gro\^al and cold, once more unfolded. 

Her gentle influence caused the sunken springs 

of happiness to again overflow ; till now 

through every vein, with energy 

renewed gush liquid fires of love. 

We saw— 

And, as we gazed, our tell tale eyes, replete with mute 

astonishment and wonder too plainly showed that 

such a sight they ne-'er before beheld. That dark 

sweet smiling face, bedecked witli eyes betray- 

ing depths of hidden beauty and crowned by 

regal brow festooned with locks of waving 

loveliness, seems nothing short of perfect. 

To see w^as homage ; for all who saw 

confess that in the hour they 

saw in beauty's strength 

She coiiquerecL 



SONNETS AND LOVE SO^GS. 119 



POOR DOLLY'S ILL. 



The flowers grow parched in ev'ry glade. 
In sympathy they droop and fade. 
Their pretty peer is lowly laid ; 
Poor Dolly's ill. 

The birds sing sad on ev'ry spray. 
Untuned and broken is their lay.; 
Each mournful accent seems to say, 
Our Dolly's ill. 

The sun shines ray less from on high, 
The wailing wind sweeps o'«r the sky, 
Time drags its dreary moments by, 
Sme.e Dolly's ill. 

All nature we^ps, but weeps in vain-, 
Her master-piece still writhes in pain, 
What art can make h-er glad again, 
While Dolly's ill ? 

(Later.) 

Once more the birds sing sweet and clear ; 
The flowers once more their beauty wear; 
'Once more all nature doffs her care-, 
For Dolly's well. 



r20 SOXNETS AXD LO^^ S0XG3. 



IF I HAD A DAUOtHTER LIKE YOU. 



Dear Maud you're a charmer there's none ean deny ;: 

You're a star twinkling bright in my life ;: 
If I were' but younger or you were less shy : — 

I'd woo you my sweet for a wife :• 
But seeing my chances so small for such Miss,- 

'There's but one course I've left to pursuer 
And that is to woo a more motherly Miss — 
And hope for a Bawghter like you. 

A dear little daughter like you — 
A rosy-cheeked dimple like you — 
Uh ! wouldn't I fondle and tease her, the pet^ 
If I had a daughter liRe you. 

It's a terrible thing to grow old don't you know ?: 

And quite inconvenient at whiles ; 
The girl that you'd like to escort as her beau — 

Looks at you with filial smiles. 
But that is the way of the world I suppose ;: 
And the old to the young should be true- 
So I will be patient and swallow my woes — 
And hope for a daughter like Yoxr. 

A dear little daughter like you — 
A doty wee darling like you — 
I know she would love me for I would love* 
her — 
If I HAD A Daughter like you. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 121 

THE POLITICS OF LOVE. 



Vain blase creatures of the world, 

Whose lost is winning votes, — 
Whose jibes at simple love are hurled 

As proof that you are goats ; 
Assemble now and list awhile, 
♦ Then cease your knavish tricks : 
Learn here that you yourselves revile— 

For love is Politics. 

A lover in his honest w^ay 

Is but a CANDIDATE ; 

He wants to have some little say 

In his adopted state ; 
AVhile she he loves, in accents dumb, 

Kewards his sallies witty. 
Till lo ! the twain with joy become r 

Joint CHAIRMAN IN COMMITTEE. 

Then when they Ve served their coxtntrv well 

By silence on the floor ; 
Next as a man and wife they dwell 

And Home Rule realms explore. 
Such patriotic ardor warms ; 

The State's gay halls resound ; 
The husband's chosen man-at-akms, 

His spouse as Speaker's crowned,. 



122 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

So on it goes ; from year to year 
Behold NEW honoks gained. 

Aspirants quote the happy pair ; 
And hope what they^^e attained. 

At last ABOYfl ALL PETTY GRIEF 

With baby's charms elate 
She's made Solicitor-in-chief, 

And he, grown very great, 
Becomes mid cheers and truant tears, 

A Guv'ner in the State 
of Matrimony. 



FLORA'S MISTAKE. 



True love is blind the sages say. 

And doubters are but few ; 
Yet be such dictum what it may : 

Blind love is seldom true. 

Fair Flora was a gushing Miss, 

More pretty far than wise. 
Who when her lover stooped to kiss. 

First made him shut his eyes. 

She made him shut his eyes, sweet Miss, 

In her impulsive way ; 
No doubt to hide the mantling bliss 

That with his kiss might stray. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 123 

But when he shut his eyes, alas ! 

Mistrust in him was born : 
And woe to her it eame to pass 

He left her all forlorn. 



True love is blind ; the sages say, 
And doubters are but few ; 

Yet be such dictum what it may : 
Blind love is seldom true. 



HE DIDN'T CATCH HER MEANING. 



'^Vye something running in my head'' 
Said thoughtful Kate to Hector ; 

''Indeed V' he absently replied, 
''Then use a hair inspector." 



AN IRONICAL ESCORT. 



"It's too bad to bring you so far from your way ; 

I'm sure I'm obliged," lisped the maid. 
"Don't mention the distance, nor thank me I pray, 

I'd as soon see you further," he said. 



124 SONNETS ANb LO\*E SOS'GB. 

DARLING, I HAVE DREAMED OF THEE. 



An answei* to the song. "Little Darling, t)refirti of Me,-' and 
so close a copy of the song that It is answering that the 
author takes no credit for either tlie thought or metre. It 
Is placed here more particularly as an instance of the slight 
changes required in English versification to quite reverse 
the sense. 

When with sorrow I^m oppressed, 
And I'm feeling sad and lonely ; 
Graham darling, in my breast 

Longings rise for thee, thee only. 
Since from me yon had to part, 

Dearer hast thou seemed to me \ 
Let me whisper to thy heart,— 
Dearest I a^Ti dreaming of thee. 

Sweetly dreaming, smiling, beaming, 

Brightest visions come to me ; 
While the stars were softly gleaming* 
Darling, I have dreamed of thee. 

Though deep rivers us divide, 

In my musing hours I hear thee ; 
And in slumber by my side, 

Fairies kindly bring thee near me. 
I^et me now assure thee, love, 

Since thine eyes first beamed on me 
Though in distant lands you rove, 

Still I'm ever dreaming of thee. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 125 

A BACHELOR'S LEAPYEAR LAMENT. 



Not married yet ! Though years are flying by. 
Not married yet ! No wonder that I sigh. 
Time still goes on, but in its fleeting train 
Comes no sweet hope to cheer a lovesick swain. 

Not married yet ! And must I ever roam ? 
Not married yet ! Oh whither is my home ? 
When I was young I thought it wise to wait ; 
But now it seems Vve waited till too late. 

Not married yet ! My aching hearjt repeats. 
Not married yet ! Nor tasted nuptial sweets. 
Why is it thus ? I constantly enquire ; 
And Echo's answer faint but w^hips my ire. 

Not married yet ! What can I — must I do ? 
Not married pet ! Shall I but live and rue ? 
Where is the heart that heaven cut out as mine ! 
Oh, tell me quick or let me life resign. 

Not married yet ! Still singly blest I rove. 

Not married yet ! No darling wife to love. 

Come, wayward fair, while leap-year gives you choice, 

With one short breath make my sad heart rejoice. 

Not married yet ! Though years are flying by. 
Not married yet ! No wonder that I sigh. 
Time still goes on. but in its fleeting train 
Comes no sweet hope to clieer a lovesick swain. 



126 SOXXETS AND LOVE SOXGB. 

MY LITTLE SWEETHEART MAUD. 



I have a little sweetheart true, 

AVitli pretty auburn curls ; 
Who sits upon mj^ knee at times, 

And is the best of girls : 
She tells me that she loves me well. 

xlnd hugs me oh so tight ; 
And when its time to go to bed 

She kisses me good-night. 

And I in turn love Sweetheart Mine 

Because she\s kind and good ; 
And tries so hard to do what^s right 

And not to do what's rude : 
Because she runs when Mama calls 

To do whatever she's told : 
Becaiise in short she seldom frowns 

And never grows too bold. 

But though I call her "Sweetheart/' yet 

She has another name ; 
And when you hear of Miss Maud Wilkes 

You'll know it means the same: 
She's just turned five years old today, 

So that is why I laud 
And put in verse the praises of 

My little sweetheart Maud. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 127 



OUR VACANT CHAIR. 



Spring, o'er the waste of Winter's drifting snows, 
Ushered by sunshine and warm melting showers, 
Comes with her train of grass and leafy bowers, 

And scatters perfume from the budding rose. 

Streams bound of late in i-ce, in gladness leap — 
Proud thus again to show the glistening gleam 
Of ripples dancing in the noonday beam — 

And hurry on to swell the boundless deep. 

Birds to a sense of ardent hope and love 

Roused from the stupor of the cold still past, 
To listening mates, on passion's billow tost. 

Fill with their melody the skies above. 

But birds and streams and meadows decked with green 
Mock us with joy for new-returning Spring ; 
Since with the pleasures does she also bring 

Sorrow, that blots those pleasures from the scene. 

Once in our midst there grew a lovely flower: 
Ripples and love and perfuir.e all in one ; 
Whose radiance dazzled like the morning sun, 

Yet grew more lovely with each growing hour. 

Spring comes ; and lo the very flower we loved ; 

The one of all the rest we least could spare ; 

Is ruthless torn away, while crazed witli care, 
We, sobbing, ask why heaven its own removed. 



128 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



WILD ALBERTA. 



Once 1 lived in wild Alberta, 

AVhere the Summer days are long; 
Where the prairie fires burn fiercely, 

And the "Chinook'^ wind blows strong: 
AVhere great herds invest the "coulees'^ 

Guided there by cowboy^s rein ; 
AVhere the "Rockies^^ stand as sentries 

Over miles of hazy plain. 

Once I lived in wild Alberta — 

And so happy was the time, 
That remembrance comes unbidden, 

And pent thoughts leap forth in rhyme ; 
For it was in wild Alberta 

Far removed from sordid care 
That I met my dearest charmer — 

Met my lovely Jennie there. 

Her I met in wild Alberta, 

And like Eden seemed the plain ; 
As we walked and talked together 

Or on "bronchos" held the rein: 
Gladly, therefore, wild Alberta 

I recall your varied charm, 
For in evVy rolling vista 

I can see my Jennie^s form. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 129 

Yes, I've lived in wild Alberta, 

Lived and loved w^hen days were long, 
Where among the prairie flowers 

Whirrs the noisy locust throng. 
4nd in bliss I've viewed the "bottoms'^ 

Where the lazy cattle browse ; 
While old ^'Mountain Chief is witness 

Of my lovely Jennie's vows. 



A HINT. 



Fond maiden be warned ; keep a guard o'er your 

charms ; 
Nor throw yourself into the saintliest arms : 
When love comes unbidden it wakes man's mistrust- 
Rash impulse excites not his love — but his lust. 



WHAT'S IN A NAME. 



They may call her ancient maid ; 

Intimate her stale and staid ; 

And apply some other terms e'en more distressing. 

But enquire her tale of woe ; 

And you very soon shall know, 

That she's just an ''unappropriated blessing." 



130 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



ELFRIDA PYKE. 



(A true story of Newfoundland.) 

Near Harbor Grace long years ago, 
(While brows now wrinkled deep, 

Were smooth, nor dreamed that locks of snow 
Must some day o'er them creep.) 

There dwelt across old Saddle Hill — 

That bare and lonely height — 
Whose rugged crest divided well 

Mosquito Cove from sight, — 

A maid w^hose eighteenth Summer's sun 

Upon her shapely form. 
With artist's skill had deftly shone. 

And ripened every charm. 

What though the Harbor boasted belles 

As fresh as opening flower, 
Whose every glance a story tells 

Of beanty's matchless power. 

Still o'er them all a very queen,. 

The fair Elfrida stood ; 
Her loveliness had to be seen 

But once before 'twas wooed. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 131 

Both far and near her fame had spread, 

And all who knew her loved ; 
Since guilelessness of heart and head, 

Her radiant features proved. 

For every one she had a smile, 

Or if 'twould soothe — a tear ; 
Her blithsome voice could soften toil, 

And lighten grief or fear. 

All proudly owned her as their friend ; 

And many suitors tried, 
With countless arts to win the hand. 

Of such a worthy bride. 

But no ! A widowed mother's need 

Required her constant care ; 
Her heart and hand, her duteous deed, 

Must still be centered there. 

And so 'twas thus one Autumn night, 

Her daily tasks complete, 
She started o'er the dreary height 

A mother's smile to greet. 

Her home lay in Mosquito Cove — 

Three weary miles away ; 
But what of that ; a daughter's love, 

Could never lead astray. 



132 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Oft had she climbed that selfsame steep ^ 
Nor ever known alarm ; — ♦ 

By sowing kindness, who can reap 
A crop of woe or harm ? 

With easy conscience — innate truth — 

Undaunted by the night, 
The maiden blessed with health and youth. 

Tripped fearless up the height. 

Ah I Little do we guess the snare& 

That compass us around y 
Too often Satan unawares, 

Can innoeense astound. 

Oblivious of the awful fate 

That even now is near ; 
The happy girl thinks ills await 

Tliose only who have fear. 

Why did not Providence step forth 

And warn of danger nigh 2 
Why test the maiden's proven worth ? 

But echo answers "Why V' 

Far down along the harbor side. 
Lights glimmered here and there ;. 

Beyond — the ever struggling tide 
Oi ocean, moaned its care» 



BONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 133 

Around her path great boulders stand 

Like spectres wild and dim ; 
While clumps of brush on every hand 

Loom up in vagueness grim. 

The night was stilL A cloudy sky 

More doubtful made the scene, 
When 'merging from a rock close by, 

A skulking form was seen. 

Too late to save herself by flight,— 

Too late to shun the place, 
A moment more revealed to sight 

A ruffian lover^s face, 

A lover who like all the rest. 

Had importuned in vain ; 
But one within whose brutal breast 

Dark passions held the rein 

Alone h>e waits her on the way, 

His hungry lust an fire 4 
Resolved to force her come what may. 

To feed his base desire. 

But little wist he of the power 

That in true virtue lies ; 
As with an oath he seized the ilower 

That seemed his certain prize. 



134 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Her startled scream rings through the night ; 

But none alas can hear ; 
Too far away the nearest light ; 

Too far that cottage dear. 

Then grappling with her fiendish foe, 

Now tossed on angry flame, 
It took but little time to know 

Her choice was death — or shame. 

'Twas death or shame ; but truly great, 

Though far from every eye, 
She fought regardless of her fate ; 

And gladly chose to die. 

Next morning on the trampled heath. 

All torn and wet with gore, 
The maiden's form lay cold in death — 

Her awful struggle o'er. 

But not in vain her fearless stand : 

For since that fatal night, 
Elfrida shines, through Newfoundland^ 

A never fading light. 

A light that like a martyred faith. 

Makes virtuous a race ; 
And keeps> her still despite her death 

The Pride of Harbor Grace. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 135 



THE EVOLUTION OF NOBILITY. 



THE IRON AGE. 

In the times of Norman William 

He who fain would be a lord, 
Had to fight his way to glory, 

And with blood bedew his sword. 
Then — according to the Saxons — 

Greatest peers were greatest knaves ; 
And they were the noblest Barons 

Who had filled most patriot graves* 

THE BRAZEN AGE. 

In the days of much wived Henry, 

And the days of second Charles, 
Love became the happy medium 

That transformed the rogues to Earls* 
Were jou then a humble Mister, 

You your lowly lot must bear, 
Till you got a pretty sister 

Or a daughter that was fair. 

THE GOLDEN AGE. 

But the sword has lost its savor ; — 

Love and business sometimes clash; — 
If you'd NOW be high in favor, 

You must pay the price in cash. 
Lenient smiles are not unwelcome ; 

Nor for that a warrior's suit ; 
But if you can buy a dukedom — 

You can have the re«t to boot. 



136 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



LOVE. 



Love is the secret of success^ 
In it alone lies happiness : 
No lover ever loved in vain : 
A mistress lost is yet a gain. 

The martyr died that he might live ; 
His very death new life can give : 
For love of truth he singly bled 
And is, by life immortal, paid. 

The patriot^s tomb is hallowed still ; 
He died, but Against his country's will ; 
He loved his home, and in return 
Men worship now his storied urn. 

The poet, — who ? what made him such ? 
When truth is known 'twas loving much ; 
The prophet, too, and famous king, 
Are fam'd because of love they bring. 

Why then, my brother, your delay 
In letting out this heavenly ray ? 
Inquire not where it can be found, 
But raise your eyes and look around. 

Why think you shines the sun on high ? 
Why flit the clouds across the sky ? 
Why rolls the sea ? Why waves the plain ? 
Do mighty rivers flow in vain ? 



80NNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 137 

What draws us to the mountain wild ? 
Why rocks in massive grandeur piled ? 
What makes Niagara flash and roar 
While luscious fruits enrich its shore ? 

What motive caused the flowers to spring ? 
And with the bud why perfume bring ? 
Were pretty birds whose songs so thrill 
But'made for beasts and sports to kill ? 

No ! God be praised, the reason's plain : 
'Twas love in their creator's brain ; 
And love in these proves love in man 
As part of one eternal plan. 

Then let us to ourselves be true ; 

Let love shine forth in all we do ; 

For love revealed is life's success, 

And spreads on earth heaven's happiness. 



OF COURSE HE DIDN'T MIND, 



You don't mind my smoking, dear, do you? he said 
As his fumes made the atmosphere thick ; 

Oh no ! she replied as she bandaged her head 
If you don't mind it making me sick. 



138 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



TO BE OR NOT TO BE. 



He raised the pistol to his feverish brow ; 
The circling barrel on his temple pressed ; 
The cold dead steel bespoke a fatal ;zest 
True to his vow. 

His finger trembles on the trigger. List 
The ghastly laugh that breaks the silence dread- 
Despair has made him heartless. Hope all fled 
Death is but mist — 

And he will pierce it. Life has lost its hue : 
A touch — a nervous twitch— and all is o'er : 
God in his mercy left one welcome door 
He might go through. 

Now is the moment. In a second more 

He'll break the bonds that bind him to a life 
Where one false move involves an endless strife 
With reef-bound shore. 

He lived thus long unfriended — now he'll die. 
When he has gone who cares ? His homeless lot 
In life, by death will gain the haunted plot 
Whereon he'll lie. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 139 

But WAS his life so cheerless ? Has the cloud 
That rolls along so threatning not one rift ? 
See even now grim Death begins to lift 
Its gruesome shroud. 

Back in his boyhood days he did have friends ; — 
Ambitious, ardent youths just like himself— 
Who thought developed wit for lack of pelf 
Must make amends. 

They used to meet and argue over straws ; 

And shake their little world with learned boom ; 
While younger brethren in adjacent room 
Would wondering pause 

And hope that they some day might be so wise ; 
Till growing brave into the room of state 
TheyM steal to hear the perorations great 
With helping eyes. 

But that was more than genius might allow ; 
The older brothers packed them off pell mell : 
"Begone ; your presence breaks the charmed spell 
That holds us now.'' 



Just like the shallow world, the wav'rer thought 
And steadied once again the murderous steel ; 
Those happy days inspired by selfish zeal 
W^ere best forgot. 



140 BONNETS AKD LOTE "SO^NGB. 

But yet— and yet — and memory fleets again 
Back to those flights when vanity ran high; 
And now he sees behind the angry sky 
One deed not vain. 



He once implored his fellows to be kind. 
And let a little sister stay to hear — 
A sober little lass whose seventh year 
Showed older mind, 

A thoughtless act that might have been quite lost 
Had not a parting flxed it firm and sure — 
Now see the weapon, held till now secure, 
By tremor tost. 

Yes, AVhen he came to part — to end those days — 
He did not think it was an ending then — 
But when he came to quit his native glen 
For traveled bays 

There was but one who w^ept to say good bye, 
But there was one ! Yes ; and the pistol falls ; 
One grateful little heart his hope recalls ; 
He will not die 

God bless that little girl. Increasing years 
May add more sorrows to his wandering lot 
But from his cheerless life they'll never blot 
Those childish tears. 



¥ 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. Ml 



GOD KNOWS BEST. 



Alone by the ocean in sorrow and sadness, 

I watched the grim breakers come crashing ashore ; 
Tillfeeling attuned to their fierce, fitful madness. 

At thoughts of the strife that was mine evermore. 
I yearningly gazed on each powerful billow. 

That restlessly rolled o'er the great silent deep. 
And wished for the moment to make one my pillow ; 

To rock on its wri things in waking and sleep. 

Then snapping my fingers in scorn at ambition, 

Away o'er the depths I could speed in my glee ; 
Now hither and thither with reckless transition — 

The winds nor the waves not more happy or free. 
No longer disturbed by desires for tomorrow, 

No longer compelled to submit to defeat ; — 
Far off from the causes of shame and of sorrow ; — 

My life would be peacefully, blissfully sweet. 

But hold ! if away from the world and its wailing 

My lot all alone on the billows were cast. 
Would I not miss some joy for all my plain sailing — 

Some pleasure that all my contentment would blast? 
Ah ! yes ; and I turned from the awful attraction. 

Once more feeling grateful to heaven above ; 
The pinings, the sorrows, the striving, the faction 

Are nothing if mingled with love, — sweet love. 



142 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



DRIFTING WITH THE TIDE. 



Commemorative of tne moonlight return in row boats 
from several private picnics to Nun's Island— a large and 
hospitable piece of property, dividing the St. Lawrence 
River some three miles below Lachine Rapids, the same 
rapids, by the way, that Moore has made famous in his 
''Canadian Boat Song." 

Come launch the boats together, boys 

The night is drawing on ; 

Old Time we eannot tether, boys, 

A pleasant day has gone ; 

Pull oat across the w^aters, boys. 

That from the Eapids glide. 

And let the throng, in happy song. 

Go drifting with the tide. 

Chorus. 

Drifting with the tide, yes drifting with the tide ; 

Maidens and their sweethearts sitting side by side : 

Who can paint the pleasures of that happy, happy ride. 

As formed in grand flotilla we drift singing down the 

tide. 

The moon in fitful fancy tries. 

With many a glitt'ring beam, 
To hold the ripples as they rise 

From dancing down the stream ; 
Despairing of her task, she sighs 

For friendly cloud to hide ; 
Bat listlessly we hear her plea, 

While drifting with the tide. 
Chorus. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 143 



Along the shore like sentries stand 

Grim poplars in the haze ; 
Or here and there a maple grand 

Invites our passing praise ; 
Bat though they send from off the land 

Their shadows far to chide ; 
In vain they preach, for out of reach 

WeVe drifting with the tide. 
Chorus. 

With happy heart and lusty throat. 

We sing a common song ; 
Since ev'ry well-remembered note 

May present bliss prolong. 
Too bad we cannot always float, 

Upon Lifers current wide ; 
And feel the joys of girls and boys, 

While drifting with the tide. 
Chorus. 



SUBDUED. 



What did the dude become, my dear. 
Who wed the maid he wooed ? 

Why George, said she, the reason's clear: 
The dude became subdude. 



144 SONNETS AND LOYE SONGS. 



THE SETTING SUN.* 



*A friend quoted from memorj^ four lines of a poem she 
had heard read containing some of tiie thoughts and some- 
thing of the style of the first stanza. I do not know who was 
the author of the four lines but under the circumstances feel 
that this poem is a plagiarism although so far as 1 know 
stanzas two and three are entirely mj^ own. — Author. 

It^s not the things weVe done, dear; 

But the things weVe left to do, 
That makes our hearts grow heavy ; 

And obstructs our spirit view. 
It^s the note we might hare written : 

The love-task — not begun : 
That sin]:s our soul with sadness 

At the setting of the sun. 

It's not the goal we aim for ; 

Nor yet what we may gain ; 
That proves to troubled conscience. 

Our life is not in vain. 
Since, what we should have suffered ; 

And w4iat we could have done ; 
May stab like venomed daggers. 

At the setting of the sun. 

So let us start afresh, dear, 

And from this very hour. 
Let all old sins be banished ; 

Nor at one folly cower. 
Do well what lies before us ; 

No duty let us shun : — 
For true hearts ever lighten 

At the setting of the sun. 



'SONNETS AND LOVE 'SO NO'S . ■ 115 



REJECTED LOVE. 



K^jected love your pangs I prove:: 

I taste your bitter sweet ; 
Life now is pain but still ^tis pain 

Where pain and pleasure meet, 

■^he^ll not be mine is why I pine. 
And yet I needs mu-st own : 

The love I bear my haughty fair 
Can in itself aton^, 

1 feel love'^s dart within my heart, 
And while ''tis there I sigh:; 

Yet sinc-e ^tis there witli all its care 
Remove it and Fd die. 

There's joy in love the ,gods approve 
When hearts to hearts respond:; 

And light in pain (thoU;gh love is vain| 
That else might ne'er have dawned. 



OSCULATION, 



As described by a female pracbitloneT-, 

A kiss is a something of strangest device : 
It's made out of nothing but oh my ! it's nice. 



146 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



A SONG OF THE WALTZ. 



The world may be full of grim sorrow and care, 

Of tri'ls, tribulation and woe : 
And tyranny, poverty, w^ant and despair 

May meet us wherever we go ; 
But if we would fly for a moment^s respite, 

From its ghouls, and its griefs, and its faults, 
Let us banish our care, swinging maidenhood fair 
In the mystical maze of the waltz. 

Hurling, whirling, twisting, twirling, 

Lost in the maze of the waltz ; [failings, 

The world may have ailings, and sorrows, and 
But not while we're dancing the waltz 

There are some who will say that it's hurtful to dance — 

A case of sour grapes, to be sure ; 
Thank heaven that one has so often the chance 

To i3ractise a pleasure so pure : 
When the music melts into melody sweet, 

And mingles its marches and halts. 
One indeed is amiss, who can feel aught but bliss^ 

While whirling around in the waltz. 

We feel as we glide o'er the well polished floor 

We are sailing on fairy seas ; 
That our feet take the place of the rythmic oar, 

And music's our zephyr-like breeze. 
Then away we go in oblivious glf^e, 

Quite free from all worldly assaults. 
And the fairies all sing of the flowers of Spring 

To gladden our hearts as we waltz. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 147 



COUNTRY MANNERS. 



In memory of the celebration of Dominion Day ati^hicaso 
during the World's Fair, 1893, and of the speecht-.s of Garter 
Harrison the Mayor, and J. »!^. Larke, a Canadian Commis- 
sioner. 

Says Uncle Sam to Canada 
^*My dear I like yoiar style ; 

^*If you'll be true 

"Pll marry you: — 
''^Sure that is worth your while? 

8ays Canada to Uncle Sam 
^'You flatter me, dear mister; 

"For your great nerve 

"You much deserve — 
"So I will be your sister/' 

"^^But surely Mis^/' says Uncle Sam, 
"You cannot blame my notion; 

"Since parallel 

Our tjountries dwell — 
"From ocean unto ocean.?''' 

""Indeed tliat's true," says Canada, 
"Your notion seems complete, 
"So to be fair 
"We two may pair — 
""When parallels shall meet." 



148 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

HE'S MARRIED THOUGH. 



During the administration of Benjamin Harrison the Ha- 
waiian reroliation occurred through tlie aid of the United 
States, and Queen Lillalukalani was deposed. Upon the 
election of President Cleveland to his seeond term a reac- 
tion in favor of the deposed Queen was very noticeable 
throughout America. It will also be remembered President 
Cleveland was married while in office. 

Queen Lillialu, 
Having naught else to do, 
Since ousted by President Ben ; 
Might a new throne receive 
From old President Cleve — 
If he only were single again. 



AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



When years have flitted o^er my head^ 

And I am old and gray ; 
I'll often mnse on years long fled, 

And of each one I'll say : 

'Twas '67 when I was born 

To life and all its wants ;: 
In '71 one happy morn, 

They dressed me up in pants ; 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 149 

In '73 I went to school, 

To learn my a b c ; 
In '82 I left its rule, 

Quite tickled to be free ; 

In '85 I fell in love 

With one, alas ! the day. 
Who false in '88 did prove, 

And drove me far away ; 

In '72 th«n there I'll wait. 

To chuckle in my glee, — 
Why that's the year, by all that's great, 

I first met Eulalee! 



NIL DESPERADUM. 



The maid was fair ; the knight was bold ; 
The grate-fire had been newly coaled ; 
No lamp dispelled the gathering gloom. 
That clustered round the curtained room*; 
"^'Shali I stir up the fire," he said., 
**The dark may make you feel afraid?" 
^'No ! No !" quoth she, '' 'twill «oon be bright; 
"*^A SPARK for me is ample light." 



150 SONNETS AND LOVE SOXGS* 



THE TYPEWRITER GIRL, 



Sung by Tonimy Tompkins a character in tlie eoniedv 
•^Toaderfeet in Alasks." 

I once was a Music Hall singer. 

The critics all knew me by name : 
And when I was singing they*d linger 

To listen and add to my fame. 
Oh those w^ere my happiest days — : 
There in front of the footlights^ blaze 

With my head and my heart in a whirl. 
For mnst I confess 
I owed my success 
To a sweet little typewriter girl. Chorus : 
Oh yes, she was a sweet typewriter girl ; 
My sweet little typewriter girl 
With her lips in pout and her hair in curl, 
A sweet little typewriter girl. 

My typewriter girl was a novice, 

When I first got in range of her smile ; 
She worked for a baker named Hovis, 

Who didn't 'catch on' to her style. 
He said she was slow as a coach : 
Wasn't that a disgraceful reproach 

To hurl at my dear little pearl ; 
And he gave her the sack 
When she answered him back r 

Sacked my sweet little typewriter girL 
Chorus. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 151 

She then got a 'sit' with an author, 

Who said she^d have half of his gains ; 
He gave her a great deal of bother — 

But neither got aught for their pains. 
And then she got terribly ^broke^ 
And put all my presents in *soak' 

Before she her tale would unfurl ; 
But I had a ^pile' 
Which went with a smile 

To my dear little typewriter girl. 
Chorus^ 

Then when she had spent all my savings, 

She dropped on a nice little snap ; 
For a lawyer whose last name was Shavings 

Gave her nothing to do, the kind chap. 
But he fell in love with her grace, 
Her delicate fingers and eloquent face. 

Her chin and her cheek and her curl — 
Till I took to drink, 
For w^hat do you think? 

He married my typewriter girl. 

Chorus. 
Oh yes. she was a sweet typewriter girl, 
A sweet little typewriter girl, 
With her lips in pout and her hair in curl — 
That sweet little typewriter girL 



152 SOKNETS AND LOVli^ SONG^. 



THE BOARDIN' MISSIS' SMILE. 



Sung^ by Tommy Tompkins a character in the eomedJj^ 
•^'Tenderfeet in Alaska." 

Though IVe been in many lands, 
And have passed through many hands, 

In my search for peace and comfort without guile ;: 
Yet I have found out at last^ 
That all joy in life is past, 

If yoiT cannot make your boardin' mis&is smile^ 

Though your friends be of the b^^t^ 
And you sport a satin vest, 

And at balls and picnics live in Jiighest style ;: 
All your pomp will be in vain^ 
For no real joy can you gain 

If you cannot make your boardin^ missis smile.- 

When your wages are increased— 

Say five hundred at the least- 
It may make you feel quite happy for a' while ;: 

But it is not worth a song 

fThough'of course I may be wrong> 
If you cannot make your boardin^ missis smile^ 

If some little Cupid^s dart 

Has with love inflamed your heart, 

And your lady takes it off into exile -; 
While you wait your wedding morn, 
You will wiMi you ne^er were born 

If you cannot make your boardin^ mi^tsis smile- 



SONK'E'rs AKD LOTE SONGS'. 153 

If a bachelor you stay, 

And you hoard your cash away 

Till at length you have contrived to save a pile^ 
What is all your money worth, 
Is it use for aught on earth ? 

If you cannot make your boardin' missis smile. 

So young man Just starting out. 
Take advice and you no doubt, 

Will insure yourself real comfort by this wile : 
If with you the girls do flirt, 
Treat them kind but be alert ; 

That you always court the boardin' missis smile. 



I'M rxOING TO WED A PRINCESS. 



Sung by Tommy Tompkins a character in the comedy 
"-Tenclerfeet in Alaska." 

I'm going to wed a princess : 

Some day she'll be a queen ; 
And then I'll be her consort — 

With all that that may mean : 
I'll sit upon a golden throne, 

And smile on Royal Dames ; 
And when her pater turns his toes — 

I'll rule the great Jim-jams. 



154 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

AVhen we are the Jim-jam king and queen, 
We'll raise old Cain with ardor keon 

Likewise the golden calf ; 
We^ll make our subjects eat our foes, 
And with our friends we'll drown our woes 

In glorious 'alf in 'alf. 

Her father is a monarch — 
(Another name for king) 
His fathers ruled the Jim-jams 

Since time first took the wing. 
And now he's growing hoary, 

So, as his daughter's spouse, 
When he has gone to glory, 
I'll take the kingly vows. 

When w^e are the Jim-jam king and queen, 
We'll raise old Cain with ardor keen, 

Likewise the golden calf ; 
We'll make our subjects eat our foes. 
And with our friends we'll drown our woes 
In glorious 'alf-in-'alf . 

Her mother — (recitative) But I forgot all about 
her mother. For heaven's sake, Starlitz, break 
the news gently : Is your mother dead ? 

Starlitz. Yes. 

Her mother's in a coffin, 

Within the Eoyal tomb ; 
Her angel voice is silenced. 

And buried deep in gloom ; 



SONNETS AND LOVE S0NG8'. 155 

Long ere her daughter married, 
She mingled with the blest — 
And quite resigned one mourner weeps — 
Whatever is is best. 

When we are the Jim-jam king and queen,, 

We^ll raise old Cain with ardor keen, 
Likewise the golden calf ; 

We'll make our subjects eat our foes, 
And with our friends we'll drown our woes. 
In glorious ^alf-in-'alf. 

Her subjects are devoted — 

At least they soon will be ; 
When she is queen and I am king 

They'll have a lubilee. 
They'll feast themselves with salmon heads. 
They'll bask in blubber fat — 
Ugh! 
But when she's queen and I am king — 
Who cares a fig for that. 

When we are the Jim-jam king and qneen. 
We'll raise old Cain with ardor keen, 

And mill: the Klondike calf: 
We'll make our subjects eat our foes, 
And with our friends we'll drown our woes 
In glorious 'alf-in-'alf. 



156 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



TECHNICAL TERMS. 



The man who holds a lady's hand 

Nor squeezes it enough ; 
Said Xellie to her newest friend, 

We ladies call ''a muff.'' 

But when a man with manly art, 
And squeeze, and kiss and throe, 

Essays to shoot sweet Cupid's dart: 
That man w^e call "a bow." 



LET THERE BE LIGHT. 



A woman's wealth of borrowed hair, 

And pulpit-hiding hat, 
Has oft inspired the Christian's prayer : 

As at her bacl^ he sat. 



CRUELTY THY NAME IS MAN. 



Oh George, why turn your head away ? 

(She sighed in accents sad) 
Speak ! speak I AVhat fault is mine I pray ? 

My dear your breath is bad. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 157 



HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED, 



The poets have sung that in days of the past, 

While Dian, a maiden divine, 
Was dipping her person so buxom and chaste, 

In billows of feathery brine. 
One, Actgeon, saw her and for his offense 

Was suddenly changed to a stag ; 
Which straightway to add to his horror intense, 

Was devoured by a favorite dog. 

The tale has its weak points all critics confess. 

For why should Diana be mad ? 
Either women have changed or her sea-bathing dress 

Must have fitted her awfully bad. 
Were latter day maidens in taking their bath, 

And a man happened by so sedate 
As not to look at them they^d deem him in wrath 

More worthy of Actseon's fate. 



THE THOUGHTS 

of aj^oung lady whose lover's name was "Knight." 



Oh come sweet Knight and light my darkened day ; 

For day is night when thou my Knight art gone ; 
While night is day if gilded by the ray 

Of thee my Knight whose coming is the dawn. 



158 -soNXETS A^^D lote song's. 



SUNDAY IN HYDE PARK. 



Morning, 

Along the Row to Marble Arch 

Wealth's famed procession passes bj^ ; 

Sweet ladyships with glancing eye, 
And lordships stiff in shining starch: 
A gaitered foot, a stovepipe head, 
An upturned nose with wine grown red, 
A purple robe, a stately strut, 
Einged ears to all but flattery shut: 
List to the nothings that they say, 
As each proud group goes on its way. 

They're happy in their little game, 
And I will be the last to squeel ; 

For T confess it to my shame 
I know exactly how they feel. 

Afternoon. 

Wild speakei*s on imported stumps; 

Surrounded by excited mobs ; 

Tell how the rich the poor man robs, 
And with one hand the other thumps. 
The tortured air is full of saws 
About the curse of wealth-made laws 
Till on the outskirts of a crowd 
Some doubting Thomas swears aloud, 
Then walks away in arch disgust. 
While after him flies parting thrust. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 159 

Perhaps reforms are born that way ; 
I cannot blame e'en useless zeal ; 

I've tried reforming in my day, 
And know how happy zealots feel. 

Evening. 

The moonlight streams near shady seat 

Secluded from the worldly breeze ; 

Where lips with vows fond hearts would ease, 
Yet hearts uneased with loudness beat. 
To rest and count the stars I^m fain ; 
But for a nook I search in vain ; 
Tis lovers' hour within the Park, 
4nd each still nook and cranny dark, 
Is lighted by love's spluttering wick — 
Whose splutter sounds like pistol click. 

I must be gone— I dare not stay — 
Tight straining arms my doom will seal ; 

Poor things ; it is their happiest day : 
I've felt the raptures lovers feel. 



HIGH IDEALS. 



Since short men and tall maids the nuptial knot tie 
It proves that the ideals of short men are high. 



160 SONNETS AND LOTE SONGS. 

CUPID'S DIRETCOEY. 

(Revised and brought down to the y«ar 1900.) 



Who was it took my childish eye, 
And liked my boyish hue and cry, — 
Who loved me when she knew not why ? 

Miss Violet, 

Who was it, when both young and small, 
I wept because I was not tall, 
Smoothed down my ruffled spirits all ! 

Miss Emma. 

Who was it first inspired my muse ; 

Who did I woo as boyhood woos ; 

But who resisted every ruse ? 

Miss Ida. 

Who was it set my heart on fire, 
To think of whom I ne^er could tire, 
Whose love did I in vain desire ? 

Miss Clara. 

But who in truth first stole my heart. 
And pierced it through with Cupid's dart ; 
Then caused me many a jealous smart ? 

Miss Nellie. 

• 

Who next took up my heart's control, 

And made me think I'd reached Love's goal ; 

Then cut me for a kiss I stole ? 

Miss Jessie. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 161 

AVho after that with dimpled smile, 
And merry wit and maiden wile, 
Did ev'ry waking hour beguile ? 

Miss Ceiia. 

Who was i^ with her pretty face. 

Her loadstone laugh and girlish grace, 

Awhile scarce left me breathing place ? 

Miss Teenie, 

Who was it then with dreamy gaze, 
Poetic thoughts and pensive ways, 
Helped much to gladden many days ? 

Miss Amy, 

Who was it had her fortune read, 
Between the lines of which it said: 
That she and I would surely wed ? 

Miss Laura, 

Who taught me first how lovers kiss, 
Then gave me practice in the bliss ; 
Till I grew weary e'en of this ? 

Miss Celia No. 2, 

Who was it loved me for my muse, 
Who could I with a poem enthuse ; 
Who did I very nearly choose ? 

Miss Donna. 



162 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Who often yielded to my sighs, 

Eat when my lips essayed their prize 

Kestrained me till I sliQt my eyes ? 

Miss Flora. 

"Who was it as I older grew, 

My heart in wildest rapture threw^ ; 

But who at last did prove untrue ? 

Miss Polly. 

Who was it then with gentle art, 

Quick healed my torn and bleeding heart ; 

Then pierced me with another dart ? 

Miss Louisa, 

But who — to end such fickle life, — 
Gained ground with every losing strife ; 
Till now, alas, she is my wife ? 

Miss Ogyny, 



FOR SCRIPTURAL REASONS. 



Said Mama to the Dean, 

Whom she caught hugging Jean, 

"How dare you treat Jennie so rude V 
"Christian sister,'' said he, 
As devout^s'could be, 

"I'm holding fast that which is good,'' 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 163 

CATALINA. 

The story of an island called "Santa Catalina" off the 
coast of California. 



Catalina was a maiden, 
and a maiden fair to see, 
Who was born long years ago it sunny Spain ; 
She was radiant and lovely, 
she was lovely as could be ; 
And her heart was pure and free from any stain. 

But alas this lovely lady, 
this Spaniard fair to see. 
Was the daughter of a martyr to the right ; 
Who beneath his country's standard 
had scorned to cringe or flee 
When invaders conquered liberty with might. 

And because he would not tremble, 

nor renounce his patriot blade 

He was doomed with all his house to die in pain : 

He was doomed, but still he managed 

to forewarn the lovely maid — 

His only living tie to conquered Spain. 

He forewarned his only daughter 
just in time to save her life. 
And she fled her boding fate in male attire, 
Her best hopes forever blasted 
by the cruel vengeful knife. 
That cut off at once her fortune and her sire. 



164 SONNETS ANDLOVE SON GS. 

It meant death for her to tarry 
near her whilom happy home ; 
She must leave for aye her much-loved native land. 
So upon a gallant vessel, 
a monarch of the foam, 
As a cabin boy she shipped for other strand- 

And no one guessed her secret, 
the seoret of her sex, 
As she nimbly did the tasks that to her fell ; 
And the ship rolled o'er the ocean, 
and the ocean o'er its decks, 
And the sailors learned to love their messmate well. 

After months and months of sailing, 
sailing over billow^s bold. 
The ship w^hich bore the maiden reached an isle ; 
And the captain anchored by it 
to recruit his health and hold ; 
Glad at last to gain a respite from his toil. 

And the natives of that island, 
of that island in the sea, 
Were a dark and swarthy race of noble mould ; 
AVho had never seen a white man, 
nor a maiden fair as she, 
Who trod the decks her secret still untold. 

Yet the natives met them kindly, 
these strangers from the deep, 
Met them kindly and entreated them ashore ; 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 165 

For they thought they must be Spirits 
from the Spirit land of sleep ; 
And so sought to make them welcome more and more. 

Now among these swarthy natives, 
these natives dark and kind, 
Was a chieftain young and nobler than the rest; 
Whose every move was graceful, 
as graceful as the wind 
That gently fanned this island of the West, 

His eye was like an eagle's, 
like an eagle's bright and keen, 
And his ever active form was strong and tall; 
Catalina looked upon him, 
looked and loved his royal mien ; 
And determined there and then to tell him alL 

To tell him all her troubles, 
to ask him to protect, 
She might as well live here as die in Spain ; 
But still she must be secret, 
nor let her mates suspect: 
F.est they should scheme to take her back again. 

What though he were an Indian, 
this native of the wild ! 
What though throughout his veins coursed savage 
She saw his heart was noble, [blood ? 

by luxury unspoiled, 
She felt that he was naturally good. 



166 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

For weeks the vessel lingered 
in this island rich and rare ; 
And the Spaniards were at home upon its shore ; 
They hunted, fished and feasted, 
feasted on the best of fare, 
From the best that filled the friendly natives store. 

But while the men were feasting 
and passing time away, 
The chieftain and the maiden drew apart 
For love full soon unbidden 
had proved its peerless sway, 
And joined the maid and chieftain heart to heart. 

Along the beach they wandered, 
or o'er the grassy heights ; 
Together seemed they always to be drawn ; 
And much the sailors marvelled 
to see their daily flights : — 
Staunch friends indeed the boy and chief had grown. 

What could they have in common, 
who had no common tongue ? 
'Twould pay they thought to follow them and see ; 
And so the two were shadowed 
the hills and heights among. 
Were shadowed to the favorite try sting tree. 

It chanced that on the morrow 
the vessel was to sail, 
To sail away perhaps never to return ; 



SONXETS A XI) LOVE SONGS. 167 

And sad had grown the maiden, 
the maid of late so hale, 
That she might from the chieftain thus be borne. 

She could not bear the parting, 
the parting from her love. 
Her love whose manly heart was now her own ; 
And so todaj^ they plotted 
within a distant grove, 
That they would hide until the ship had gone. 

With looks and signs for language — 
love needs no tardy words — 
They told again the pleasing tender tale; 
And there they sat together 
as happy as the birds 
That billed and cooed and sang in yonder dale. 

But all their hopes were blighted, 
as other hopes have been •; 
The unseen sailors heard where they would hide : 
They saw, too, the embraces 

that passed the friends between, 
And knew at last what drew them side to side. 

The morrow came and early 
the ship prepared to sail, 
A friendly breeze sprang up to aid its course; 
And when they proved the maiden 
regardless of their hail. 
Her messmates wi^nt to bear her off by force. 



168 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

They sought the chosen arbor, 
and there upon the sward 
The chieftain and his trembling charge were found 
His arms were round about her — 
a loved — a loving guard — 
But one alas that soon must shield the ground. 

For as the sailors seized her, 
his fair — his Spirit bride, 
The chieftain drew a weapon in her aid ; 
But overpowered by numbers 
they stabbed him till he died, 
Despite the frantic pleadings of the maid. 

And now all hope was over, 
her guardian had been slain ; 
And slain while fighting manfully for her; 
How could she ever leave him, 
with those who were her bane, 
As well as bane of him no more to stir ? 

She could not nor she would not, 
so grasping quick as thought, 
The dagger that had ta'en her lover's life : 
She plunged it in her bosom, 
and fell where he had fought : 
In death to be his true and loving wife. 






SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 16D 

THE STRANGE MUSICIAN. 

A Story of Mount Royal. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

Whoever has visited Mount Royal, the beautiful height 
from which the surrounding city of Montreal takes its 
name, will hardly wonder at its being the resort of fairies 
and genii. I have traveled for eleven years and have seen 
many of the cities of both the old and new world yet in all 
my wanderings 1 have only seen one city— Edinburgh— that 
might pretend to so great a natural attraction within its 
bounds. This fact is indeed so obvious that the time 
approaches when not to have seen Mount Royal will argue a 
man untraveled. 

I need not teU Canadians that **sugar wood" is the name 
usually applied to a grove of sugar mrples by the farmers 
who tap the trees. Maples in their artistically shaped 
leaves, thick, bushy foliage, and ever-changing colors, are 
perhaps of all trees the most ornamentaL 

The sun from out a Summer sky 

Sent forth its sultry heat ; 
Soft fleecy clouds crept slowly by, 

Disturbed by zephyrs sweet: 
As up Mount EoyaFs tree-girt breast, 

I climbed one August day : 
Now here — now there by care depressed, 

To wind my listless way. 

Far, far beneatli, half hid in smoke, 

A busy city toiled ; 
While frcm the haze its steeples broke, 

And in tlie sunshine smiled. 



170 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Close by the waters warm and wide, 
Of proud St. Law^reiice rolled ; 

And to the isles that stemmed its tide, 
A ceaseless story told. 

For mile on mile beyond its flood, 

Stretched cultivated farm ; 
With many a fruit and sugar wood 

To lend their varied charm. 
The eager eye was ever blest — 

No matter whether turned 
To North or South, to East or West^ 

Each scene a sceptre earned. 

Oh regal hill ! Most royal Mount! 

How well thy heights are named : 
Could I but half thy charms recount, 

My verse would long be famed. 
But here alas my humble muse, 

(Perhaps lest it might fail) 
Kow^ whispers that despite thy dues, 

I tell my wondrous tale. 

Grown tired of strife, with brooding breast, 

I clambered up the steep. 
In hopes upon its lonely crest 

To lull my woes asleep. 
Though round me lay the varied scene, 

I saw no beauty there : 
No view to him displays its sheen. 

Whose heart is filled with care. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 171 



Fell Trouble had me in her clasp ; 

And as I vainly tried 
To loose the loathesome creature's grasp, 

And soothe my injured pride, 
I fiercely climbed each petty hill 

That barred an aimless course ; 
First Hp, then down, o'er ridge and rill. 

To spend my passion's force. 

At last, upon a mossy knoll, 

Secluded from the heat ; 
Beneath some trees serenely tall — 

A nature's own retreat, — 
I flung myself at restful lengthy 

Still railing at my fate ; 
And mourning with regaining strength 

My seeming hapless state. 

All life, thought I, is but a load, 

Thrust on us ere we know ; 
This world is t)ut a forced abode — ■ 

The iiaunt of pain and woe. 
There is no purely pleasant stage 

From cradle unto grave ; 
Sin, shame and want incessant rage, 

And baffle e'en the brave. 

Thus ran the burden of my plaint — 
When sudden through the trees. 

Sweet strains of music, softly faint, 
Come wafted on the breeze. 



172 SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 

At first they seem to come from far, 

But as I lean to hear, 
By slow degrees the Very air 

Aroiind me fills with cheer. 

'Tis not like sigh of wind-blown trees ; 

Nor gush of brooklet near ; 
Nor song of birds ; nor hum of bees ; 

That falls upon my ear, 
But more as though some organ grand, 

With throbbing stop and swell. 
; Were being played by master hand 

That knew its secrets well. 

From whom the music comes or how ? 

Is wrapped in mystery ; 
Beside me on the mountain brow 

No other can I see. 
Amazed I listen to the strains, 

And hold my breath in awe — 
Divinity alone attains 

To skill so free from flaw. 

Each note more perfect than the last, 

Throughout my body thrills ; 
Till in hypnotic spell I'm cast, 

To do as music wills. 
A holy calm comes o'er my life ; 

Each sound a picture grows ; 
I lie exempt from all my strife. 

Oblivious of my foes. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 173 

Transported back ; once more a child 

In innocence I roam ; 
The world all limitless and wild 

Surrounds my blissful home. 
All things seem new where'er I stray ; 

No single charm can pall ; 
I have no wish save change of play ; 

No hope save to grow tall. 

Upon the mead I romp and run 

AVith overflowing glee, 
And pluck the daisies one by one, 

To prove that I am free. 
With naked feet through mud and mire, 

I splash in arch content ; 
Soiled clothes but aid my glad desire 

To boast of pleasure spent. 

Along the brook that babbles past, 

I wander listlessly, 
Till in the forest it is lost 

To sunlight and to me. 
For in the wood I dare not tread ; 

Its depths too awful seem ; 
The very silence raises dread 

That haunts my after dream. 

A neighboring ledge, too, offers space, 

Where, with untutored power, 
I often raise on crooked base 

A still more crooked tower. 



174 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Alas that childhood's happy days, 
Like these same piles of clay, 

Should crumble even as I gaze ; 
And crumbling fade away. 

The strain grows bolder. And I find 

That now, no longer free, 
A boy at school I've grown resigned 

To serve at Wisdom's knee. 
A world till this unknown appears 

Through letters' artful aid ; 
And now I spend my time and tears 

In fiction's light and shade 

I delve in history's peerless page ; 

Through tomes of classic lore ; 
And swell in sympathetic rage 

AVith those who suffered sore. 
I read of battles fought and won ; 

Of heroes staunch and true ; 
And love to think what they have done, 

I some day too may do. 

Ambition fires my boyish blood ; 

I dream of power and fame ; 
And oft in sanguines t of mood 

Repeat my laureled name. 
Tlie worldly world may have its joys, 

To those who give it heed ; 
But as for me — I only prize 

That world of which I read. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 175 

Another change comes o'er the strain ; 

My school hours slowly fade ; 
Now, heart to heart, a conscious part 

Of comrades am I made. 
Life once again has changed its hue ; 

The world not near so wide, 
Seems just enough awry to sue 

For heroes wise to guide. 

Kor w^ill It longer sue in vain. 

For blest with hopeful youth. 
We favored few w^ith might and main 

Will fight for right and truth. 
We know each other's inmost thought 

And oft by what we dare 
Show plain to those who own us foes, 

That they had best beware. 

Around the volume-covered board 

In hot dispute we draw : 
Our tongues with learning newly stored. 

Can argue o'er a straw. 
We share alike the social joy 

That on our lot attends ; 
No petty feud can peace destroy — 

We are eternal friends. 

So staple are the cherished ties 

That knit us soul to soul ; 
When next the varying music vies, 

It loses part control. 



176 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

For mid those friends one manly voice 

I never more shall hear, 
Still prompts my hesitating choice, 

And lingers on the ear. 

But, all too strong, the dreamy strain 

At length its hold renews ; 
And now a youthful goal to gain — 

AYith many fond adieux — 
Alone I leave my early home 

Beneath a Northern sky. 
To seek a fortune as I roam, 

And sat« my curious eye. 

Great cities spread their teeming stores 

Before me as I speed ; 
O'er dizzy heights the cataract pours, 

Eejoicing to be freed ; 
From snowcapt peaks half hid in mist 

Grim glaciers slowly creep ; 
AVhile trackless plains horizon-kissed 

Vie with the boundless deep. 

The sunny South displays its wealth, 
In groves of fig and date ; 

The bracing North — the home of health- 
Smiles o'er its fields of w^heat ; 

The learned East its ruins shows 
Of boasted age a test : 

And new found gold a glamor throws 
Around the virgin West, 



80NNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 177 

All sorts of people go and come 

Across my devious way ; — 
The palace bright — the darkling skim — 

Now varies the array. 
And oft when fails such crucial test 

Of greatness in the great, 
I learn that in a lowly breast 

A kindly heart can beat. 

I also learn that in the race 

For life and daily bread, 
Keforming heroes have no place, 

Till hungry mouths are fed. 
That fainting hearts must take the wall: 

While those who bravely strive 
Grow stronger by each weakling's fall, 

And being fit survive. 

Oh Travel ! Happy, happy theme ; 

Idyllic are thy joys, 
What pen can paint the fadeless beam 

That falls from foreign skies ? 
Had not some superhuman power 

The guidance of my will ; 
The countless thoughts that round thee tower ; 

I'd be recounting still. 

But soft ! More 'witching grows the strain ; 

My wayward fancies stray ; 
A brighter vision tempts my brain 

And gilds the closing day. 



178 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Is that — ? Ah yes ! the lovely form 
Of her whose winsome smile, 

Since early youth has been the charm 
That lightened every toil. 

Zetulba, beautiful and wise, 

The acme of desire ; 
The lightest look from whose dark eyes 

Would wake Apollo^s lyre. 
Though others win my passing praise, 

Or hold my fleeting dream ; 
Within my heart Zetulba stays, 

And ever reigns supreme. 

And now all other bliss forgot ; 

My loved one by my side ; 
Within a dainty pleasure boat 

We're drifting with the tide. 
The banks glide past ; the ripples sing ; 

The stream reflects the sky ; 
While far above on lazy wing, 

The swallows shoreward fly. 

Entranced my darling views the scene, 

Nor stints her glow^ing praise ; 
AVhile on her happy face — more keen — 

I feast my fettered gaze, . 
And must I still the secret hide ? 

Why should I longer wait ? 
My pounding heart, too long denied ^ 

Now bids me know my fate. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 179 

So there beneath an azure sky — 

While down the stream we sail, 
xlnd birds and waves sing lullaby — 

I tell the tender tale. 
In words that thrill I plead my suit, 

But ere my fate is known, 
The music stops — and on the height 

I find myself alone. 

The sun had set ; and through the trees 

I see a starry gleam, 
When from the spell of tuneful breeze 

1 wake as from a dream. 
The memory ot my harsh tirade 

Against the ills of life 
Eeturns, but thanks to music^s aid 

Quite petty seems my strife. 

For after all though fortune frowns 

And plots to make us sad. 
The world has ups as well as downs 

And is not wholly bad ; 
A cloud at times for good designed 

May darken any sky ; 
But when it breaks we'll ever find 

The sun still shining high, 

Our childish toys ; love's dearer joys ; 

The charms of book and friend ; 
Ambitious dreams and travel's gleams 

To life a halo lend : 



180 



SO>TNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



And when we look upon the past, 
With steady, truthful eye, 

We find our years more often blest 
Than ruesome or awry. 

Thus much consoled at last I rise — 

(Quite loth to leave a place 
Where late I heard such melodies) 

Then slow my steps retrace. 
Now, while I^ve failed to hear again 

Mount KoyaPs magic tongue, 
I glad commend to grumblers vain 

Its Strange Musician^s song. 




IRENE, 



A MEMOIR, 




IRENE 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 183 



IRENE-A MEMOIR. 



PART ONE. 

I met her first in the Spring of 1897. She was then 
a modest, dark-eyed girl of twenty-three, teaching 
school at Neptune and dearly beloved by all but par- 
ticularly by her pupils. I remember well our first 
meeting. I had gone to Neptune on legal business 
which, being over, (and a tedious wait of six hours 
before me ere my train left again for Palm Beach) I 
took possession of the sofa in the Cabot House parlor 
and composed myself for a sleep. Several hours went 
by slowly enough when suddenly I was aroused from 
slumber by voices in the room. I looked and a young 
lady was bending over the piano while a little girl 
was taking with difficult pains one of her first lessons 
in music. My presence was unnoticed by either of the 
new occupants of the room, and so I remained per- 
fectly still and waited the lesson out. That was the 
first time I saw my future wife. She was the teacher 

and a little Miss C was the pupil, and in the half 

hour that elapsed between the time that I awoke and 
the time 1 was once more left alone I had grown to 
think a great deal of the teacher. 

During the month that followed 1 saw her fre- 
quently. Once 1 was detained by busiiu\«is over night 



184 SONNETS AND LOVE SON GS. 



at Neptune and at Mrs. C 's request Irene gave up 

her room to me and occupied a room with one of the 

Miss O 's in order that I might be accommodated. 

On this occasion I saw the various pictures that 
surrounded the room and numerous other dainty 
knick knacks that indicated the character of the usual 
occupant, and my good opinion was increased. 

Consequently when after about the fourth or fifth 
meeting "Miss Irene'' (as she was universally called) 
asked me to use my influence to obtain for her one of 
the tw^o scholarships that was given to the State by an 
educational institution in Tennessee, I applied my- 
self to the work with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, 
liowever, the time for handing in the necessary peti- 
tion was short and before 1 could secure all the names 
that were necessary to add w^eight to the request the 
appointments had been made and we were both dis- 
appointed. 

At the latter end of May — of that year— she came to 
West Palm Beach where I was residing and entered a 
class of teachers preparing themselves to undergo the 
annual school examination. By singular good fortune 
she happened to take her meals at the same ta])le at 
wiiich I enjoyed mine. I sat next to her and for a 
number of weeks saw her constantly although without 
any particular arrangement on either part. There 
were two other teachers at the same table one of 
whom v\'as a gentleman (now a clergyman) and our 
conversation embraced a very wide range of subjects. 
Notwithstanding the fact that her views w^ere always 



SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 185 

originally expressed I found a wonderful affinity of 
thought between Miss Irene and myself. Our little 
group developed quite an esprit de corps at these 
daily gatherings around the festive board and at 
length dubbea ourselves "The Knights of the Oblong 
Table/' To this moment as a memento of those red 
letter days I have in my autograph album a drawing 
of a table — the work of Miss Irene— with the auto- 
graph of each of the group in its proper place at the 
table and the legend as above quoted figuring at 
the top. 

My thirtieth birthday put in an appearance during 
the time above referred to and two of the teachers — 
Miss Irene and another — presented me with two em- 
broidered coverlets for my bureau, one of which each 
lady had worked during spare moments stolen from 
studies. I was grateful as any bachelor might be to be 
thus remembered, but owing to the gifts being similar 
and from different ladies in each other's confidence, I 
did not dare to attach any particular significance to 
the incident. For a week or two after that and while 
the examination was in progress it was my felicity to 
take a constitutional each evening by walking with 
the ladies over Lake AVorth bridge to Palm Beach and 
down Oleander avenue to the ocean. The moon, 
always more beautiful in the tropics than elsewhere, 
was at its best about that time, and as we sauntered 
along breathing in the pure air from the sea seasoned 
with the scent of guavas and pineapple plantations in 
the neighborhood we waxed merry and romped and 



186 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

sang with a glee usually confined to boys and girls of 
perhaps half our age. It was in memory of those 
after-supper strolls that months afterward while a 
w^anderer in Paris, France. I wrote the following 
verses : 

WHERE CECELIA DWELLS. 
Though the rolling and the tumult of a busy, busy 
world 
Fall with tedium unending on my ear ; 
Though the gayest city's gayeties around my way are 
whirled, 
Till the hours seem almost spent before they're here : 
Still my thoughts find time to wander to a cottage far 
away, 
W^here the whippoorwill its homely story tells ; 
And there by fairies' favor I while the happy day 
Where Cecelia dwells. 

Through the smoky haze of distance, over ocean wild 
and wide, 
1 can hear Lake Hypoluxo lap its banks ; 
And can see the royal pompano leap glistening from 
its tide 
To fright the eddying mullet from their pranks. 



Hypoluxo is the Indian name for Lake Worth, 
Florida, a justlj' famous winter resort, often called 
the Riviera of America. Jt is a body of water some eij^hteen 
miles long separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a strip of 
land varyiuii in width from ooe-haif to three-quarteis of a 
mile. This land is very fiuitfuland all mrnner of tropical 
vegetation is ;o be found upon it; while the lishing both in 
tue Lake and Ocean is I'emarkably good. '•Mullet" is the 
mo-^t common variety and another species known as ' pom- 
pano" has a peeuliar habit of leaping out of the water from 
five to ten feet in air. 



SOXNETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 187 

At the Beach a dear form lingers and the very waves 
grow calm, 
As she reaches ia their depths to gather shells ; 
And dainty zephyrs gossip of her graces with a palm 
Where Cecelia dwells. 

Tropic nighttime freights its breezes with a scent of 
ripening pines ; 
And a fragrance floats from guava groves in bloom ; 
As I stroll mid oleanders ^neath a moon that peerless 
shines ; 
Or pause within palmetto's welcome gloom : 
For methinks my arm encircles a queen of Eve's fair 
race 
AVhile all the ills of life her smile dispels : — 
So who can blame my dreaming of that enchanting 
Where Cecelia dwells. [place 

But this poem was not altogether a reference to 
her. In fact I had no idea that Miss Irene cared for 
me in any other way than as a congenial, whilom 
companion. The remembrance of her desire to enter 
tlie educational institution in Tennessee, and which 
required as a condition precedent that the applicant 
w^ould devote four years to the work of the institu- 
tion, seemed to prove to me that such was the case, 
and while on several occasions I was tempted to know 
more, yet at that time I was just recovering from an 
affaire de coeur to which I had been a prey for some 
years, and which had so entangled itself with my 
plans in life that I felt conscientious scruples about 



188 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

thinking of a close relationship vv^ith any other young 
lady. Hence when at length the train came that took 
Miss Irene to her home I had never gone beyond the 
bounds of platonic friendship with her. I saw her off 
it is true and handed her a volume of poems that I 
had published some years before together with a 
letter telling her how much I had enjoyed her com- 
pany. Yet in that letter I suggested that the chances 
were we would never meet again as in a few weeks' 
time I proposed to leave America for Europe, and if 
circumstances turned out as I anticipated it was not 
at all probable that I would ever return to Florida. 
She did not open the letter until after I had bidden 
her good bye, so that I was quite in ignorance of how 
such a prophecy might affect her. 



PART TWO. 

I went to Europe as I had determined and remained 
there at different places for something over two years. 
Then I returned to America and spent a year in the 
far AVest. How 1 ever came to return to Florida I do 
not know. Outside of the generous climate and the 
hospitable character of Florida's inhabitants there 
was no particular attraction. 

In the excitements and experiences of the interven- 
ing years I had about forgotten **Miss Irene'' and she 
never once entered my thoughts when I determined 
to once more try my fortunes in the "Land of 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 189 

Flowers.^' Indeed I was still nursing the same old 
heart trouble and visions of a girl who had been false 
to her vows used to haunt my dreams every now and 
again and I remember very well assuring friends 
whom I met while on my way to Miami that so far as 
I then knew I proposed to remain a bachelor for life. 
Like Eomeo of old before he met his Juliet I believed 
myself impervious to the charms of any lady other 
than the one who had "promised fair but performed 
but ill/' and the following verses composed about 
that time show how very far from my thoughts was 
the lady whom Fate was even then placing in my w^ay : 

BREAK, BREAK SAD HEA.RT. 
Break ! break sad heart ! and still the memories 
thronging — 
Memories of joys we neither should have know^n ; 
Break ! Let me rest ! Make cease the ceaseless 
longing — 
Longing for one whose heart has turned to stone. 

Sometimes I dream — a w^akeful, midnight dreaming : 
I see her corpse — the corpse of one not dead ; 

From out the gloom its hollow^ eyes are gleaming ; 
And as I see that instant peace has fled : 

And when I turn to hide my face in sorrow, 
Through the wide room the spectre seems to swell ; 

And weight with space its ghastly features borrow, — 
Till I'm oppressed beychid my power to tell. 



190 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

Break ! Break proud heart I and end this empty living ; 

Break ! and be kind : I cannot choose but sigh : 
She has been frail, and I as unforgiving: 

She lives a loud and I a silent lie. 

I vowed to hate — and for hate's venom vv^aiting, 
Each trivial w^rong I tried to magnify ; 

Years have slipped round but now for all my hating, 
Love lingers yet and does not — will not die. 

Others have come and fiercely have I drawn them 
Close to my breast lax hatred to abet ; 

Alien caresses I've forced in showers upon them : 
But through it all I could not once forget. 

Could not forget nor cannot cease from loving — 
Though she is false and far away from me : 

Break, break true heart — for life to ii:e is proving, 
Through thy grim truth, an endless misery. 

I had been in Miami about one month w^hen I saw" 
by the papers that Miss Irene was assistant principal 
in the Miami public school. Several such notices 
brought her to mind and I found a desire to meet her 
growing stronger daily. Still another month went by 
without that good fortune until one Sunday morning 
w^hile in a front pew in the beautiful church presented 
to the Presbyterians of the Magic City by Mr. Flagler 
a remarkable sensation caused me to look back in the 
audience. As I did so my eyes fell on those of Miss 
Irene, and somehow at that moment I knew my years 
of bachelorhood were destined to be of short duration. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 191 

She was with another young lady — the same by the 
way who six months later became her bridesmaid — 
and on hurrying to meet her after church I received a 
cordial greeting and an invitation to call. 

I did so within the week. I spent a very happy 
evening. We occupied the time exchanging stories of 
the road since we had last known each other, for she 
too had done some travelling in the intervening years. 

I noticed that she had grown stouter and was look- 
ing exceedingly well, and ascribing it to the fact that 
she had spent her annual vacations for three successive 
years in the North I expressed the sentiment that all 
women who undertook to live in Florida should do 
likewise, for while men seemed to stand the Southern 
Summers all right, women were invariably the worse 
for wear unless they had an annual change of climate. 

In the course of conversation I dwelt upon life in 
Paris and without knowing that she had more than a 
casual interest in such a subject I spoke in glowing 
terms of the politeness and courtesy so prevalent 
among French people. 

I also told of my hosts in Paris being like most 
of the French people conscientious adherents of the 
Roman Catholic church and of a jocular remark 
I had once made to one of them. Upon being asked 
what was my religion, I replied in deference to a 
pretty Parisienne who was present, that I proposed to 
keep that matter entirely in abeyance until I got 
married upon which event 1 would try to be of the 
same religion as my wife. To excuse this seeming 



192 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

levity to Irene 1 proceeded to explain the view that 
so far as I was concerned I believed that every con- 
scientious well-doer, be he Roman Catholic, Protest- 
ant, Buddhist or Brahmin, deserved Heaven and our 
good opinion, bigots co the contrary notwithstanding. 

These three sentiments expressed at random during 
that first meeting proved most opportune. Irene was 
descended from Parisians on the maternal side and 
vras proud of the fact. She had been educated at a 
convent and for years had felt a strong leaning to 
Roman Catholicism in consequence. There were some 
features of the faith that she had never wholly ac- 
cepted but she at least loved the Sisters who had 
taught her and on that account their religion, and she 
was glad to find that unlike many of her protestant 
friends I had no serious antipathy to her feelings 
along that line. She gave me credit, however unde- 
served, for being unselfish by my concession that 
women needed Northern ozone more than men. 

At our second meeting, which happened two weeks 
later, we talked principally of what we had read and 
of what each of us had done in a literary way during 
the years that had passed. I found her ambitious to 
become a writer and as I long had had hopes in the 
same direction it was a common ground for mutual 
encouragement and exchange of experience. She was 
six years my junior and owing to some slight — very 
slight — success in the literary field I felt somewhat 
her superior, which position she willingly conceded. 
It was therefore my province and pride to advise her 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 193 

as to how she might attain her ambition. From frag- 
ments since seen of her writing I recognize now how 
absurd were my assumptions of superiority on that 
occasion for her ability as a portrayer of feeling on 
paper was far in advance of mine. It was at this 
second meeting that I was extremely pleased to have 
her show me some recently taken photographs of her- 
self and my pleasure was increased upon her offering 
me as a gift whichever one of the dozen she had that 
I chose to select. I agreed at an early date to give 
her a picture of my own in return and also promised 
on my next visit to bring some of what manuscript 
I had for her perusal and criticism. 

The week that had to go by before our next meeting 
seemed the slowest week in all my existence. I had 
her photo on my bureau and never entered my room 
without paying it homage. I tried to reason it out 
that even if I were not entangled by a former senti- 
mental alliance I was at least not yet in a position to 
marry but during that week as though to belittle 
the last defense a law partnership at West Palm 
Beach suddenly presented itself which in its early 
stages made my future look as promising as a rain- 
bow. I felt certain that my feeling for Irene was no 
mere fascination. Time and again as the week 
dragged along I argued the matter out. 

Since early youth I had been forming an ideal of 
what seemed an impossible wife She must be a bru- 
nette. This requirement had been suggested to me 
by a phrenologist. She must be religious but liberally 



im SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

SO, and this qualification more than all others ill 
seemed hard to tind in a woman. She must be ot 
respectable family. Her standard of virtue must at 
least be as high as my own, and her character like that 
of Caesar's wife must be above reproach. I knew I wa&J 
of a jealous disposition and could not bear even f| 
whisper against the one in whom future relation 
would require absolute faith. 

I had early turned longing eyes to the poet's art 
as the highest calling of mankind. Years ago I hadf 
written : 

TO MY MUSE. ' 5 

Sweet Poesy, thou nymph divine, — .^ 

My dearest hope and pride ; 
My heart now offers at thy shrine 

The debt it cannot hide, 

AVhen to thy coy and countless charms 

My musing mem'ry strays, 
My spirit with the contact warms, 

And I am tilled with praise. 

In sorrow thou art ever nigh, 

My mournful hours to cheer ; 
In happiness, wert thou not by, 

'T would mak(^ my bliss less dear. 

When Friendship calls for tribute just. 

Or Cupid claims his due, 
Tliou never yet betrayed my trust, — 

Thy help is sure and true. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 195 

Here let me own with grateful grace, 

Thou art my only guide ; 
AVith thee — what matters time or place ; 

Without — e'en heaven is void. 

These verses had appeared as the frontispiece in the 
volume of poems already mentioned here and which 
was published in 1893, Since then the "disease'' (as 
my facetious law partner calls it) has grown upon me, 
and in addition to the second volume that is now 
before the reader I have manuscript enough to make 
tw^o more voluuies quite as large. These efforts 
may never reach the publisher but whether they do or 
not they will still have served their purpose. They 
have helped to build my character and my ideal of a 
wife as well. By this I mean that for years I have 
striven to find a brunette such as already described ; 
First, whose love for me should be more for my poetic 
ambition than for anything else. Second, w^hose ac- 
complishments should be such [that she could be a 
suitable helpmeet for me in the attainment of that 
ambition. And third, that she would be younger than 
myself and as a writer competent when I was dead 
and gone to make use in a literary way of the diary 
that I have kept from my fourteenth year, and the 
unpublished manuscript that might be found among 
my papers. 

When I began to compare notes betw^een these 
requirements and the young lady whose picture 
graced my bureau— strange though it seemed to me— 
I could find no particular in which she did not fit the 



196 SOXXETS AXl) LOVE SOXGS. 



ideal. In fact she had qualities in addition to these 
that enhanced her value to nie twice over. She was 
modesty personified. 8he was so tender hearted that 
her sympathy went out to all things living— even 
spiders and snakes in her estimation were deserving 
of protection. She was economical and prudent in a 
marked degree— a trait that appealed te me as the 
one thing needful to offset my own improvidence. 
Duty w^as the mainspring of her every action and it 
was one of her chief attractions to hear how firmly 
she declared her submission to the will of her parents 
and her debt of kinship to her brothers and sisters. I 
had always felt the force of the argument that a 
duteous daughter makes a loveable wife and here was 
a case in point. It was no use parleying wnth Fate, 
and when Friday came I made my third call fully 
determined before leaving that I would propose mar- 
riage to Irene and compel her by the very vehemence 
of my vows to be mine. 

I shall never forget that night. One hour — two 
hours — three hours went by and I had not even 
broached the subject. True we w^ere very near it all 
the time. First of all w^e had talked about the manu- 
script I had brought. This gave rise to curiosity 
about the characters and she w^as anxious to know^ if 
all the love songs that I wrote were true and if so to 
whom did some of them refer. In clearing up some 
of these mysteries of ^^^y past ; explaining how I came 
by a certain ring that I invariably wore ; telling whose 
face it was I had photographed on the casing of my 



SONNETS AND LOVE SOXftS. 197 

watch and such other incidents as my conscience dic- 
tated 1 had suggested a reciprocity of reminiscence 
in my companion, and suddenly there loomed up a 
stumbling block I had not foreseen in the person of a 
rival. I could detect, however, that on two or three 
accounts I had some advantage over my fellow con- 
testant. In the first place she had known me first. 
In the next place while he was for the present in 
better circumstances than I yet I aimed lor a place of 
which he had no conception, and to a girl so ambitious 
as was Irene this was a very material point. Lastly I 
had an advantage over all competitors by being on 
the ground. These things considered I summoned up 
the necessary coura|. e and in so hesitating a voice that 
we often laughed at the situation afterwards I told 
her how dear she had become to me, how bi^dly I. 
felt the need of such a life companion and asked her 
if she was willing to become a poet's wife. She was 
wearing anotiier's ring at the time and refrained from 
giving me a decisive answer. It was two by the 
clock when I finally bade her good bye and went home 
with the bare assurance that ''she did not know any- 
one she liked better.' ' 

My case seemed desperate. Her admission was cer- 
tainly encouraging but that unfortunate ring was 
torture. And yet I did not want her to discard my 
rival under false [iretenses. Lale though it was when 
r got home the next morning's mail to her contained 
a letter from me full of confession and ending with the 
following v(^rses : 



198 80:^NKT» AM) LOVE JSOXGS. 



MY ONLY PI.KA. 
I \o\v you (irar; and tliougli (^f luiiiible birth — 

Witliout one bonst of heraldry lo niaki' — 
T fain would bolj^lrr up my doubtful worth, 

And hv a princeling for your darling sake. 

I love you dear; but I am uj) in years— 
I am not even blessed with hopeful youth ; 

My leaf is tinting and attendant fears 

>\'ould dub my passion as a love uncouth. 

I love you dear; but still I needs must add 
1 have no riches to enhance my claim ; 

Ko gold to purchase what might make love glad — 
No wealth to ])rove that all my heart's aflame. 

I love you dear : but while my dues are small — 
While birth and age and wealth withliold their 
cheer ; 

If you'll reward my love and be my all — 

You'll some day cherish that I love you dear. 

Several letters passed between ns before our next 
meeting which was on Tuesday and I was prepared 
when 1 got tln^re to find that the ring wa»J no longer 
in evidence. 1 eame too as her accepted hu'er, but so 
reserved was she that 1 felt it was just possible I had 
won her hand l)ut not her heart. No amount of vehe- 
mence—of proft^ssion — of worship — could win her en- 
lire contidence. Although my promised wife she was a 
doul)ter of my sincerity. This frost lasted through 
two or three <*venings and 1 began to despair of ever 
rrally wimiintr li»'r love, 1 ottered all sorts of proofs 



SONXETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 199 

. . ^_ ^ 

of my earnestness — I even proposed an immediate 

clandestine marriage until such time as we were 

ready to take up housekeeping. This she would not 

listen to for a moment and I had great difficulty to 

explain my position in having proposed such a course, 

as to her it was like asking to have her turn traitor to 

her parents. 

I suppose tw^o weeks had gone by and about four 

calls when late one evening we were talking of my 

native city and the conversation turned to the young 

lady there resident whom I had nicknamed ''Zetulba'' 

and whose portrait was still upon the casing of my 

watch. Suddenly she referred to the poem: "Break ! 

Break sad Heart^' already quoted in this memoir and 

asked was it not possible that my present feelings for 

her (Irene) w^ould change in favor of "Zetulba'^ and 

that she like the "others'^ there mentioned w^as only 

a temporary solace ? With the query she burst into 

tears (the first time this had occurred in my presence) 

and I at last saw what was the cause of her lack of 

confidence. As may be imagined I at once reassured 

her as best 1 could, promised undying faith, and by 

the next day's mail clinched the promise with these 

verses: 

I WILL BE TRUE. 

Friend of my heart, my chaste Irene, 

My soul's desire, my beauty's queen: 

In waking hours each changing sc«ne 

Eeminds of thee ; 
W^hile in my happier dreams th^^ sheen 

Still hallows me. 



20() SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



Apart from thee my every thought 
Tn thee, of thee, vvitli thee is fraught, 
Till with my loneliness dislraught, 

I pine and sigh ; 
And fields and streams and skies all plot 

'I'o tell me why. 

(xladly I own thy lack of guile— 

Thy modest worth — thy maiden wile — 

Thy gracious words — and hap])y smile — 

Thy plighted love— 
For me have made this world of toil 

Like heaven above. 

Would that I could with heavenly power 
Protect thee Sweet when storm-clouds low^er ; 
Yet I'm but human, and an liour, 

Despite my grief. 
May find thee in I^ife's pelting shower 

Beyond relief : 

But e'en though liuman — to my (^ueen 

I can be loyal — loved Irene. 

And so Dear Heart, should sorrow keen 

E'er make you rue, 
No matter who dares com(» l)etween 

I Wir.L BE TRIE. 

From that time on I had no real reason to complain 
of lack of affection on the part of my fiancee. She 
then told me for the first time that had I spoken to 
her four years ago I would }\ave stood as good if not a 



soxxetjj^ and love soncjs. 201 

better chance than now, and it was her common boast 
that while other lovers had come and been accepted 
in the years when I had been away yet she had always 
remembered me with the kindest affection and conse- 
quently 1 was her first as well as her last love. 

About this time I gave her an engagement ring. 
She preferred . a solitaire diamond and in the only 
jewelry establislnnent in Miami there were but two 
solitaires from which to choose. I brought them both 
to her — one being just double the price of the other- — 
and without mentioning price told her she could have 
her choice. She showed her economical quality at 
once by choosing the less expensive of the two. 

In exchange for the engagement ring she presented 
me with a gold medal she had won at school which I 
at once appropriated and wore as a charm on my 
watch chain to her satisfaction and delight. The 
only other charm I had on the chain at the time was 
a memento of the chief friend of my boyhood days, 
and it seemed sufficient to her that 1 placed her 
medal side by side with a reminder of the one of 
whom [ had written: 

MY FRIEND JACK. 
1 had a boon companion, a tried and trusty friend ; 

Together we had played when we were boys ; 
Together had we rambled, nor recked that youth 
must end, 
And with it all its dearest cherished joys. 



*20*> sokkets asd lovk sokgs. 

His smile was all 1 wished for to crown a boyish feat ; 

To him 1 told whatever went amiss : 
()(ir secret thoughts were common, nor were onr hopes 
complete 

Without each being party to their bliss. 

But time is ever fleeting ; no longer did we play 
The games that had beguiled each childish hour ; 

And as we grew to manhood with ev'ry passing day, 
Our boy love gained intensity and power. 

I gloried in his friendship — the purest gift on earth ; 

r felt that he was noble and sincere ; [worth 

1 i)roudly called him comrade, and recognized his 

In striving by his life my own to steer. 

But best of friends are parted— ambition cut the tie ; 

T left him, travelled honors fain to earn : [sigh, 

And being young and sanguine I scarcely heaved a 

Anticipating soon a sweet return. 

Three Summers slowly faded, and still from him apart 
My phantom fortune lield me far away : [heart 

But memory's tender missives kept warm within my 
A corner where that friend had perfect sway. 

Then hopes grew briglit and brighter— good times 
were drawing near: 
Soon back to him and home 1 would be bound ; 
When suddenly a message made life a prospect drear: 

TifK eOMKADK OF MY nOVHOOD ITAl) BEEN DROWNED. 



so\NeT8 and Love sokgh. 208 

Needless to saj' we were both very happJ^ The 
future was indis^tinct but there was no mistake about 
the present of which the poem that follows and which 
was written on a rainy day is a pretty good proof: 

THERE 18 MUSIC IN MY HEART. 

There is music in my heart, 

There is music in my heart ; 

Though outside the waves of discord writhe and roll ; 

While around me storms are raging ; 

And the winds bleak war are waging; 

There are zephyrs aromatic in my soul, 

There is music in my heart, 

There is music in my heart ; 

And I care not what the jarring world may say ; 

Though against the pane is falling 

Blasts of rain and sleet appalling— 

Yet within my heart is one long sunny day. 

There is music in tny heart. 

There is music in my h<Mirt ; 

And I dance and sing and let my joy run o\ir ; 

For the one I love most dearly, 

Most devoutly and sincerely, 

Has protested that she loves me even more. 

Tlien Christmas — last Christmas — came. Oh what 
a merry Xmas it was. She went home for the holi- 
days but a daily letter each way kept us still together 
in spirit. Her twenty-seventh birthday came during 
the holidays as well as Christmas and of course I had 
to remember her with trifles on both anniversaries. I 



204 SOXXETS A XI) LOVE SONGS. 

sent her a case of perfume for her birthday and an 
ivory handled gold pen for Xmas. AVith the pen I 
sent a special injunction that she use it on all occa- 
sions. This I afterwards noticed she did not do and it 
was always more or less of a mystery to me that she 
should fail to comply with this request. She nevei* 
at any time referred to the matter however and it 
was not until after she was gone that I found 
out the pen was merely for show and was utterly 
valueless so far as actual use was concerned. That 
she never mentioned this tome proved how^ thoughtful 
she was of my feelings for of course had I known I 
w^ould have felt extremely annoyed that I had sent 
such a sham for a gift. 

In our various conversations about literature up to 
this time Irene had named as the novel par excel- 
lence in her estimation the work of James Lane Allen 
knowni as "The Choir Invisible.^' This story she used 
to say was the most interesting she had ever read, and 
if I ever w^anted to entirely please her along literary 
lines it was to write a book something after that stylo. 
1 had never read the story but I aften remarked upon 
the name at least being seductive and that I certainly 
would sooner or later take it up. She was determined 
that it would be sooner rather than later, and for 
( -hristmas a copy of Allen's -'Choir Invisible'' was the 
gift I received from my affianced Sweetheart. I read 
it through before going to bed. It is a sad— indefina- 
bly sad— story. From beginning to end it tells of 
mismatings and everyday life tragedies and that she 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 2C5 

— my lovely Irene — should be so wrapped up in it was 
somewhat ominous. That thought was the chief effect 
of my reading the book and for weeks I had many 
misgivings about her on account of it. It was only 
after long consideration that I at last decided it was 
because the story appealed so strongly to her sympa- 
thy that she was so drawn to it ; for of all women I 
have ever met I never knew one so sympathetic as was 
Irene. 

During the first few weeks of January in order to be 
certain that she did not connect our engagement with 
the book in any way and with a curiosity, peculiar no 
doubt to all lovers, I made frequent queries to know 
what there was in me that made her willing to be 
mine. It is a hard proposition for anyone to explain 
but eventually w^ith the utmost simplicity she made 
the answer that occasioned the following" song: 
I WANT TO BE WITH YOU ALWAYS. 
*'I want to be with you always'' 

Were the words that my loved one said, 
As with wondering eyes I expressed surprise 
That she should be willing to wed. 

Chorus — 
"I want to be with you always, 

"Through life with its sorrow and joy ; 
"No jarring alarms in your sheltering arms 
"Could the solace of love destroy. '^ 

"I want to be with you always,'' 

Was her one artless reason why 
My Dear Heart agreed to give Hymen heed 

And respond to my ardent sigh. 
Chorus — 



1206 SONNETS AND LOVE SONdS. 

"I want to be with yovi always, 

"That we never again need part:'' 
While I held her tight in supreme delight 

And revowed her my hand and heart, 
(/horns — 

"I want to be with yon alw^ays, 
"In the pleasures of life — and pain ;'' 

Till I sealed my bliss with ecstatic kiss 
And re-echoed her sweet refrain : 
Chorus — 

My importunity to know^ her reason for being will- 
ing to give herself to me aw^akened a like curiosity in 
her. I remember very distinctly giving about a dozen 
reasons on the spur of the moment but none of them 
really told all the truth and I felt how helpless I w^as 
to answer other than in her ow^i simple words. It 
w^as a realization of this fact that caused me at length 
to write : 

THE SPEECHLESSNESS OF LOVE, 
vSweet Girl — or shall I Angel say ? 

For you are holy in my sight — 
Would that my eyes could but betray 

That you to them are more than light. 

Would that the floods that swell my veins, 
And w^hile you're close izy cheeks suffuse, 

Could tell a lover's constant pains — 
That you might nevermore abuse. 



SONNETS AM) LOVE SONGS. 207 

If words could only half confess 
The passion that I have for thee, 

Life would no more seem wilderness — 
But one long round of ecstasy. 

If I could prove by one^grand act 
Just how your every movement charms, 

You'd know my love no virtue lacked : 
And that my heaven is in your arms. 

Sweet Girl — or let me Angel say ! 

For you are holy in my sight — 
Kead and in weakness find display 

Of love no pen has power to write. 

We had not yet determined upon the time ot our 
wedding. In fact my little lady objected to fixing any 
date until we had first obtained her parents' formal 
consent to our union. This was a task I somewhat 
dreaded as I was not acquainted* with Irene's people 
other than by hearsay, and from h«r own description. 
I did write finally and in course of time was invited 
with Irene to spend a day at her father's home in 
order to enable all parties to grow better acquainted. 

Several weeks passed before an opi)ortMnity arrived 
but it finally did arrive when February twenty-second 
gave Irene a few days' vacation. She went home to 
Boca Raton on tlie twenty-first (which was a Thurs- 
day) and did not have to return again until time for 
school on Monday morning, ft was arranged for mo 
to goon Sunday jnoniing to spend the day at her 



208 SONNET}!! AND LOVE SONGS. 

home and bring her back to Miami Sunday night. I 
think it was during the days that we were parted I 
composed : 

AN INSCRIPTION. 

These lines I write to One whose light 

Illumes my lonely way ; 
AVhose happy smile makes joy of toil, 

And turns my night to day. 



Whose regal brow confronts me now, 

Though she is nowhere near ; 
Till I confess from empty space 

I gather perfect cheer. 

AVhose shapely chin my praise to win 

Comes ever on my view ; 
Whose damask cheeks each tribute seeks- 

Nor vainly do they sue. 

Whose honeyed lip — which zephyrf? sip 

For nectar-laden kiss — 
Too far off flaunts with saucy taunts 

Its store of soulful bliss. 

Within whose eyes (which high I prize 

As truth's most certain test) 
Is seen enshrined the traits that bind — 

The virtues I love best. 



sonxktS and love songs. 209 

And so I write to One whose light 

Turns night to brightest day ; 
Since thoughts of her — so true — so fair — 

Drive all my cares away. 



When Sunday came I was off by the morning train 
for Boca Raton. It was a forty mile run from Miami 
and as I had to leave very early Irene had arranged to 
wait breakfast for me. It was eight o'clock when I 
arrived at my destination and sure enough breakfast 
was in waiting and my reception by all was most 
cordial. Irene never seemed so confiding or tender 
and I could feel her in the very atmosphere striving 
to make my visit a pleasant one, A drive about the 
pineries, a sail on the canal in an electric launch, an 
excursion along the beach on foot, and several tete-a- 
tetes in the parlor, besides viewing the ravages of a 
forest fire that happened close to the beach during the 
day was a program worthy of remembrance. Need- 
less to say I was glad I had come and for a week after 
felt it necessary to commemorate the visit in verse 
form to show Irene my appreciation. That was how 
I came to write : 

CAST UP BY THE SEA.* 

At Boca Ratone where the beach is wide, 
And the surf breaks tierce on the flowing tide ; 
From billowy depths as they toss and roar — 
The form of a woman was washed ashore. 



210 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

From billow^'' depths of unlimited sea — 

How far she had come was a mystery ; 

No loved one had followed to whisper her worth — 

To tell of her country — to tell of her birth : 

Alone had she drifted from vacant deep — 
Alone and all silent in Death^s blank sleep : 
'Twas nought to her now that the fickle wave 
Had even refused her si watery grave : 

Nor nothing indeed that the shifting sand, 
And the unsought aid of a stranger's hand, 
Had offered a haven of rest at last 
On the flowery land where her corse was cast. 

Whatever her story — how weary or sad — 
How noble and earnest — how awful — how glad : 
It is here at an end and the glancing foam 
Weeps misty tears by her last long home ; 

And the swaying palmettoes that shelter her bed 
To the winds make moan o'er the unknown dead ; 
While travelers — hushed by the ocean's boom — 
Hear sermons from God at that lonely tomb. 



*Just above high water mark on tlie beach at Boca Raton, 
Dade County, Florida, there is a lonely grave In which lie 
the remains of a young woman washed ashore some two 
years ago. There was no clue whatever to her identity or as 
to whether it was a case of shipwreck or suicide, and so to 
save the County expense the Sherifif ordered her buried close 
to the place where she was found. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 211 

This story Irene had helped to tell me and it was 
her sympathy for the poor forlorn one in the deserted 
grave that had influenced the moral that 1 tried to 
draw from tlie incident. 

About this time the affairs of my proposed law part- 
nership looked very blue and so we decided against 
our desire for a speedy marriage and determined that 
a year at least must elapse before we could "name the 
day." On this account it was necessary for Irene to 
undergo another school examination in order to 
hold her position, and to pass the examination she 
would have to study. Though at the beginning of my 
courtship we had thought a visit once every two 
w^eeks quite proper it had now become almost neces- 
sary for me to see my lady love at least once a day. 
This we both felt guilty over and that we must 
either deny ourselves or else settle down to study 
together: I to read law and she to worry through the 
intricacies of higher mathematics. AVe chose the 
alternative naturally enough and for several weeks I 
made an honest effort to review Blackstone by the 
same table where she was workijig out examples in 
algebra. It was a complete failure so far as I was 
concerned, however, for I scarcely ever passed a par- 
agraph without looking up to see how my fair com- 
panion was faring. She on the other hand was 
possessed of a most remarkable concentrative power 
as the incident of our first meeting in Neptune can 
corroborate and many a dozen problems were solved 
during those weeks. At last I pretended to be so 



212 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

interested in algebra that I allowed law to stand to 
one side to give it fall attention. It was daring those 
days that we once strack a problem that did not come 
out right. There would have been more than one 
such had it depended on me but it nettled my sweet- 
heart's pride to be beaten on even that one occasion 
and so, while I did succeed in distracting her atten- 
tion from the sum long enough to say goodbye, the 
next morning I found awaiting me in the postoffice 
a love letter from Irene. It was a plain piece of 
paper with the word "Eureka^' at the top, the example 
duly worked out in the middle, and the word 
*'Goody ! ! !'' at the bottom — which latter was her way 
of exclaiming victory. 

But law and love and algebra did not go well 
together. Something must be done to get rid of such 
a mixture. I saw that my fiancee dreaded the exam- 
ination and the preparation for it worse than almost 
any other fate. I saw too that she had a great desire 
to become an artist. Her ambition along this line 
and her aptitude for art were very noticeable. She 
was continually sketching faces and figures while in 
my company. This was one of two accomplishments 
that I used to extol in her at every opportunity. She 
was a splendid pianist and as such had agreed some 
day in the sweet bye and bye to play over some of the 
masterpieces of the great composers for my especial 
benefit as I had long had an idea that in classical 
music I could always detect a story which with a little 
patience on-thejpart of the player I might interpret 
and put into verse. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 113 

When I found, that in addition to her musical 
ability Irene was also an artist I often assured her 
that our prospective union was a marriage arranged 
in Heaven for I had already written a comedy that in 
my sanguine state only needed to be illustrated as 
DuMaurier had illustrated Trilby to be an assured 
success. For a time I had almost induced her to give 
up school teaching and go to some large center and 
perfect herself in art. At all events she concluded in 
the meantime at my solicitation to do something 
along that line and began taking afternoon lessons 
from a lady friend who had already had some special 
instruction in art. I was delighted with the arrange- 
ment. Our conversation often turned on the future 
and we spent many hours together building Castles 
in the Air. It was under this inspiration that I wrote: 

CARRY A HIGH IDEAL. 
Carry a high ideal. Better on crusts to feed 
Than give the tempter heed. Better a humble cot 
That is yours by honest lot; than live in a palace fair 
With turrets high in air if its foundation stones 
Must cover victims^ bones— were purchased with 
others blood. 

Carry a high ideal. Better to not believe 

Than like hypocrites deceive. Better a heathen's fear 

If in tliat you can be sincere. Better to grope in 

doubt 
Hoping some pathway out; than in conformist pew 
For a God you never knew to chatter a parrot's praise. 



214 SONNETS AND LOA'E SONGS. 

Carry a high ideal. Better a single life 
Than an anhonored wife. Better to stand and lean 
Over an empty chair dreaming who might be there 
Than to build a home and throne and on that throne 

of home 
Place one wiio is not queen — make all that's real 

unreal. 

Carry a high ideal. Better like martyr wracked 
Than famed for w^rongful act. Better to live unknown 
Unfriended and alone, but with no conscience sting, 
Than be a guilty king by tyranny encrowned — 
Than be the lord renowMied of a land w^iere might is 
right. 

Carry a high ideal. Better to fix your eye 

On blue ethereal sky and ere you reach it die 

Than through your lengthened days l)e content with 

lower gaze. 
Better to even fail in an aim of lofty scale 
Than where the end is less to obtain complete success. 

In recalling the hours that we spent together about 
this time incident after incident rushes ui)on me until 
I recognize the futility of being able in a short }ne- 
moirtodothem all justice. Bright and clenr how- 
ever stands out one particular act of hers that showed 
not only Irene's character but also her idea of what 
my character was. Among my earlier poems she had 
often commended : 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 215 

NATURE'S COMFORTERS. 

Babies, and music, and flowers ; — 

Tokens of infinite love — 
Coming like soft Summer showers. 

Fresh from the heavens above : 
These, in our moments of sadness, 

Temper our sorrows with joy, 
Fill our lone hearts with their gladness. 

Banish all baneful alloy. 

Delicate roses and lilies ; 

Buttercups glistening with dew; - 
Dear little daffadowndillies ; 

Violets hiding from view ; 
These prove their Maker's protection : 

Promise His provident powers : 
Kindle each finer affection : 

Solace our loneliest hours. 

Touches of ecstatic passion ; 

AVhispered suggestions of woe ; 
Breathings of coming elation; 

Memories of long, long ago: 
These into harmony blended. 

Aided by angelic art, 
Lighten the loads that offended, 

Melt e'en the stoniest heart. 

Innocent, infantile charmers, — 
Flowers and mu-sic combined, — 



216 SOVXETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 

Smiling faced, dimpled disarmers, 

Killing both matter and mind : 
Plucked from the meadows of lieaven ; 

Cooing in melody sweet ; 
These are (in tenderness given) 

God^s antidote for deceit. 

l^abies, nnd music, and flowers, — 

Tokens of infinite love — 
Coming likf soft Summer showers, 

P>esh from the heavens above r 
These, in onr moments of sadness, 

Temper our sorrows with joy, 
Fill our lone hearts with their gladnes?- 

r>anish all bai.efnl alloy. 

But I did not imagine that she took the words literalli', 
I had on several occasions brought her flowers — - 
scattering ones that had been handed me for tlie mosf 
part for her by mutual friends. Her passionate love 
of flowers had become proverbial as was evidenced by 
her never coming home from school without a bunch 
of violets or pansies or roses that had been given her 
by her pupils. Still [ never dreamed that she would 
deem me apprev.iative enough of such a gift until one 
afternoon the general routine of my office work was^ 
enlivened by the arrival of a messenger with a bouquet 
of the most beautiful roses it has ever been my lot to- 
see in which was nestling a card 'To George with 
compliments of Irene/' Of course I felt grateful ; 
who would not ? And that evening I swore to her 



80XXETS AST> LOVE SONGS. 2l7 

that I would write another sonnet in lier honor. She 
protested that if I did she would rather I would write 
something that she could be sure meant her. The 
poems that I had given her to date were too compli- 
mentary she thought and no one could distinguish her 
in them owing to my superlative descriptions. In 
looking through my manuscri})t, too, she had found 
inscriptions to other ladies which were somewhat too 
non-committal and especially called my attention to 
one of these which was named "To One I Love^^ which 
mighc mean "One^' of many. She was modest and 
did not want to be flattered but she wanted to know 
nevertheless that she was the only one. It was this 
conversation that gave rise to the sonnet: 

THE ONE I LOVE. 

The one I love — oh holy, happy thought ! 

Oh balm of Gilead for each petty ill ! 

What rapture or ecstatic throe can thrill 
Like to the rapture from these accents caught ? 
The one I love — the one I live to please — 

The one whose smile dispels my darkest gloom ; 

Whose wish makes dareable the direst doom 
And transforms hardship to a life of ease— 
This one I love is why, when troubles come, 

And all the world seems but a cage of strife, 
When fellows slight me and loud friends grow dumb, 

I still have reason to be glad of life : 
Sahara's desert must Elysium prove, 
If in its confines lives The Onk I Lovk. 



218 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

About the first of March we conoluded that it would 
after all be better for us both if we set an early date 
for our marriage. The law partnership that had 
superinduced my proposal to her had by this time 
become a mere name with but little prospect of actual 
practice. It was necessary therefore to make other 
plans for the future and to count the cost in actual 
doUars and cents. I told her exactly what money I 
might expect to hav^e by about June sixth, which w^as 
my birthday, and which if possible I would like to 
have as my wedding day also. I need hardly say the 
amount was none too large but for all that it did not 
appal my little lady, and I shall never forget the pride 
and confidence she displayed on that occasion by 
excusing herself a minute, going to her room, and in 
a moment after returning with her bank book, which 
she opened and handed to me with the exi^lanation 
that "we could count on having that much also.'' It 
about evened up with my assets and we would there- 
fore begin housekeeping as equal partners. 

The next poem for which Irene is responsible was 
composed about the middle of March. It was occa- 
sioned by a Fair that was held in Aliami which we 
attended one evening together The editor of "The 
Homeseeker,'' a Florida publication, had asked me 
for a poetical contribution to his paper about the Fair. 
I told Irene jokingly of the request and she rather 
liked the idea — in fact it had become her settled 
policy to encourage me in every way that she could 
along such lines. So while there I paid particular 



SOXXETS AXD loa^p: soxgs. 219 

attention to the various exhibits, many of vvliieh were 
new to me but which she was able to name, and on my 
next visit I read for her amusement : 

MIAMFS GREAT SHOW. 

They may talk of the VVorld^s Fair at Paris, 

And the sights that were there to be seen ; 
They may thirjk that Chicago could harass 

And make sjnaller ventures look mean : 
But we know tliat they all are mistaken ; 

Such exliibits will scarcely compare — 
1\ the same things from each should be taken— 

With Dade County's wonderful Fair. 

What with orange and grapefruit and lemon, 

AV^ith tangerine, papaw and lime ; 
With pineapple, pepper, persimmon 

And mango (to keep up the rhyme) 
With compte, kohl-rabi, cassava, 

Figs, dates, pomegranates in store, 
Sapodilla delicious and guava, 

And mellow bananas galore ; 

With pears avocado, tomatoes, 

And turnips and lettuces sweet ; 
With plantains, peas, beans and potatoes, 

With cocoanut, olive and beet ; 
With cauliflower, carrot and onion, 

And cucumbers juicy and cool ; 
With corn — yes, but not any bunion — 

(Which is named to keep metre in rule) ; 



:^:^0 soNXE'Ts an'dLove soxas. 

What with parsnips and parslej^ and Dntch-like 

Green cabbage and celery head ; 
Asparagus, spinach and such like 

And strawberries luscious and red ; 
VVMiat with sugar cane, melon and kumquat ; 

With pumpkins of every grade ; 
Witii egg-plants and okra and what not: 

All grown in the gardens of Dade. 

All ripened by tropical sunshine. 

And seasoned with Everglade dew ; 
Such trophies from hammock and high pine 

On no other soil €ver grew ; 
Let them talk of Chicago and Paris 

Let them even take Eden in tow — 
But nothing they say can embarrass 

Or belittle Miami's Great Show. 

It was now an enthusiastic but impatient wait for 
the sixth of June. At that time I had arranged to 
open up an office of my own in Miami and I was to use 
what money I had to furnish the office and law library 
while her money w^as to fix up the home. We had 
even fixed upon the house that we were going to 
occupy and it w^as the chance of losing this cottage 
upon which we had set our hearts that finally induced 
us to precipitate matters. The house had to be rented 
wiien a rival applicant put in an appearance and was 
endeavoring to make arrangements to occupy it. On 
the eighth of April therefore T saw the landlord and 
paid a month's rent in advance with an option of 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 221 

ultimate purchase at a certain figure in order to be 
sure of obtaining it. The paying out of this rent for 
an unoccupied house appealed strongly to Irene^s 
ideas of economy and it was an easy matter on that 
account to induce her to name a day immediately 
after the closing of school for the Summer vacation. 

It had become a habit with us by this time to spend 
almost all our leisure moments together, and Sunday 
was especially desirable to both because on that 
day we had more spare time than on other days of the 
week. Part of our Sunday, if it was fine, we invaria- 
bly spent either on our wheels around the boulevard 
and park adjoining the Hotel Royal Palm, or else on 
the grounds surrounding Fort Dallas, (the most his- 
torical spot in Southern Florida). This Fort is built 
on a beautiful site overlooking the Miami River at a 
point some few hundred yards above its junction 
with the placid waters of Biscayne Bay and is 
now occupied as a private residence. Many an after- 
noon w^e spent there reclining on the grass under 
the shade of one of its royal palms with a volume of 
Tennyson. Foe or Longfellow as we chose to bring 
with us to vary our conversation. Romance usually 
gathers around «11 the actions of a love match but it 
seems to me now^ as I look back that most of the ro- 
mance of our courtship days clusters around those 
Sunday afternoons and for that reason I feel a 
special interest in the following commemorative 
verses : 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 



THE GROUNDS AKOUND FORT DALLAS 
Although Vve been in foreign lands 

and seen no end of sights ; 
Though Fate has given me glorious days 

and no less glorious nights ; 
Though Fortune has been kind at times 

and kept me free of care ; 
And 1 have had the luck to earn 

some honors for my share : 
Of all my rambles, palms and peace, 

for those dear hours I sigh, 
In the grounds around Fort Dallas, 

with Miami gliding by. 

Vve climbed to snow-capped mountain peaks 

from which great glaciers creep ; 
I^e stood where sparkling waterfalls 

hav^e made their last rash leap ; 
Vve seen the prairie in a blaze ; 

I've felt the earthquake's shock ; 
I've ventured near the breakers where 

they've dashed against the rock ; 
But Nature never seemed so grand 

as when my Love was nigh, 
In the grounds around Fort Dallas, 

with Miami gliding by. 

For there we've sat beneath the palms, 

and watched the long leaves swing; 

We've talked about the Seminoles, 
and Osseo their king; 







3 



< 



04 
< 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 223 

We^^e gazed upon the battered fort, 

and wished that it might tell, 
Of wonders that it's walls have seen — 

of braves who fought and fell ; 
But best of all we^'e heard love's tale — 

my sweet Irene and I — 
In the grounds around Fort Dallas 

with Miami gliding by. 

Between the eighth and the twenty-seventh of April 
(which was the day finally set for our union) every 
moment of both of our lives seemed to be occupied. 
The ordering of a wedding ring, the obtaining of a 
license, the securing of a minister, the cleaning up 
and furnishing of our already rented cottage were but 
a few of my duties and needless to say she entered 
enthusiastically into every project. The preparation 
of her trousseau and wedding costume in a hurry was 
no small task in itself and would have kept most 
ladies busy without any other occupation ; but all 
this time Irene was attending to school regularly and 
even working nights to help the principal make a good 
showing. I managed to see her daily to consult and 
report progress and within the happy week of our 
wedding I presented her with a poem that I had made 
sometime before. In her modesty (a trait wliich I 
discovered more the more I knew of her)she protested 
when I read it to her that it was too flattering, but I 
vowed then and do yet that I never was more in 
earnest in my life than when I wrote :. 



224 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

THE LOVELY IRENE— A Toast. 
Let all who would worship at Venus's shrine, 
Xow fill up a bumper with generous w^ine ; 
And join nie in drinking a toast to my queen — 
The modest, the dainty, the lovely Irene. 

For once V\\ forget she is promised to me ; 
For once I'll let others partake of my glee ; 
For once I'll be gracious and share in her sheen : 
So drink with me deep to the lovely Irene. 

Ask not why I love her ; nor if I have right: 
As!: not why in darkness I fly to the light ; 
Ask not why she dazzles with ray so serene ; 
But toast without question the lovely Irene. 

There are others perhaps who have qualities rare ; 
There are others as w^ise, and as true and as fair; 
Yet such gems are so few^ and so distant between — 
'Tis a boast to know one like the lovely Irene. 

And if you should know one so gentle and kind ; 
Let mention of my love call yours to your mind : 
Then offer libations with heartiest mien : 
Paying tribute to both in "the lovely Irene.'' 

So all who w^ould worship at Yenus's shrine, 

Fill to flowing your glasses with soul-stirring w^ine ; 

And help me do honor to her I own queen, 

By drinking the health of The Lovely Irene. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 225 



Just as our final arrangements were being made for 
the occupancy of our Miami home the law partnership 
that had apparently become a visionary scheme of the 
past suddenly loomed up again with all its former 
prospects. It looked like flying in the face of Provi- 
dence to reject what seemed a permanency for a 
speculation and after submitting the matter to Irene 
we at once decided to accept the proposition. Al- 
though it meant a loss of what outlay we had already 
made (which in freiglit and other ways amounted to 
quite a sum) we fitted our plans to meet the require- 
ments and without changing the date of the wedding 
made arrangements to let our moving to West Palm 
Beach be our wedding trip. 

AVe were married at Boca Raton according to 
arrangement. Outside of the minister and one bride- 
maid there was only the immediate relatives of my 
bride at the w^edding. It was just in the dusk of 
evening that the ceremony was performed and it was 
most impressive. Her people too had spared no pains 
to give us a hearty send off and when at last we 
arrived at West Palm Beach we had no regrets of any 
kind and only the most promising future before us. 



PART THREK. 

I had imagined before we were married that I knew 
all there was to know about my prospective helpmc^et 



226" SOKXETTS AND LOVET SOK'GK. 

but I never was more mistaken in my life. In every 
trait she became more pronounced. Her modesty 
became a wall around her wliile her affection became 
a wall around me. I had no conception that there 
would l>e such a transformation. My sense of duty 
had kept me from learning the full extent of her 
modesty before marriage and her sen&e of duty had 
made her then withhold the love that now began to 
environ me. From my boyhood days I had schooled 
myself to believe that women were more virtuouS' 
than men. I had often l>een laughed at for the lofty 
f)innacle on which I placed the weaker sex and had 
been assured by so-called men of the world on all 
occasions that my ideas were erroneous. Perhaps in 
some instan<3e& such adm43nitions were right and yet 
I must now own my expectations fell short of the 
mark and that I had to blush on more than one occa- 
sion for my want af refinement in my wife's presence, 
I do not wish to tear aside the veil that hides 
from general view tiie ties that bind together the 
dearest of all relationships. I admit it is possible ta 
meet impure women and it is po&sible to meet some 
who assume to be pure who are not, but in the case of 
Irene there was neither sham nor mockery about her 
modesty ; it was innate and a part of her character 
and at this moment that particular trait is the very 
perfume of her memory. 

She entered heart and soul into the business of 
housekeeping. As we both despised a- "man Molly'' 
and as I did not want any interference with regard to 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 227 

my office work we early made a compact tliat she was 
to be responsible for everything about the home and 
my work ceased when I left the office. If either of us 
required the other in our allotted w^ork then we must 
look for aid as a favor only to be obtained by request. 
We obtained a four-roomed cottage with a large ve- 
randah and a yard planted with trees and shrubbery. 
Irene carried the purse and made every purchase. 
The house was in bad repair and for weeks w^e were 
topsy turvy wiiile carpenters and kalsominers w^ere 
fixing things up. Everything was new^ to us of course 
but especially so to Irene for she had been teaching 
school for six years and housework had never appealed 
to her. Yet when she applied herself to it with the 
concentration that she used in anything else she took 
up, success was assured and [ was soon so spoiled by 
her indulgent study of my tastes and appetite that at 
any other table than hers I w^as palled and unable to 
do justice to a meal. In a month's time w^e had 
formed domestic habits and it was to our life from 
that time on that the following sonnet refers : 

HOME. 
Now that I know the pleasure of a home — 

One of my own with worldly cares shut out ; 
Where only she I love and I may come, 

And wliere in bliss we dw^ell devoid of doubt : 
Now that I feel the atmosphere of love 

So pure, so sweet, so comfortably w^arm. 

Surrounding our retreat and lending charm 
That gives it likeness to the home above: 



1'28 SOXXETS AND LOVE SOXG.s. 

I would not change niy state were all the gold 
Of Croe^ns offered that it might be bought ; 

T would seem like sacrilege to even hold 
A moment's parley with so base a thought. 

The wide, wide world has not a mansion fair 

To tempt me from the cot she deigns to s-hare. 

Irene kept me strictly to the letter of our compact 
and somehow managed to make me feel that I was an- 
interloper if ever 1 dared penetrate to the kitchen. 
In other parts of the house however I s^oon learned 
that I was "the only pebble on the l>each'' and what- 
ever I suggested or thought about anything was sure 
to go. In fact I discovered that, without any inten- 
sion on my part, our relative positions had changed 
since marriage and instead of it being a que5tioi> 
whether I would suit or i>ot it was Irene's oft 
repeated query: "Was I satisfied with her.^' Her 
new aim in life was to be as good a wife as ever lived 
and in my heart I believe she succeeded. Recog- 
nizing that she had agreed to become my help- 
)neet in every S€m^ of the word she lo*t no op- 
portunity of urging me along the path that I had 
?*elected for myself. Her admonitions kept ever in 
y^emory niy poem : 

KEEP CLIMBING, 

Keep climbing I keep climbing life *s boulder-strewn 

height. 
Each early seen })innacle ever in sight : 
Tliough obstacles hinder keep plodding along; 
With "higlu-r, up hi^rlu'r" forever yoiir song. 



B'ONXKTS AND LOVE SoXG^. ^'2% 

ICeep climbing ! keep climbing I be never cast down-, 
Though men who seem higher in scornfuiness frown:; 
^ake courage, nor falter; look forward, not back; 
Their methods but prove them upon the wrong track. 

Keep cHmbiixg! keep climbing ! though weary and 

f<aint:; 
Keep upward and onwaM without a complaint; 
Though friends from the pathway in idleness stray, 
Your motto and duty is "Glimb while you may.'^ 

Keep climbing.' ke^p climbing I nor offer to stand., 
Or rest in the shadow of what you have pl"anned^ 
The way may he rugged, the mountain be steep, 
But once on the summit you safely may sleep. 

Keep climbing ! keep climbing ! make each movement 

tell, 
A thing that^s worth doing is worth doing well:; 
The goal is above you, defeat is below. 
Keep climbing ! keep climbing ! to victory go. 

Nothing that I aimed for seemed impossible to her 
and she would rally me if I expressed the slightest 
fear for the future. Some days I would come home 
and find her poring over my manuscript comedy in 
order that she might be able to do her part as illus* 
trator when the time was ripe, while at other times I 
would find her just as interested trying to put some of 
my love songs to music. These acts may have been flat* 
tery but if so, it was flattery of the most delicate kind. 

My being considered a bad risk by several insurance 
societies, my mother's death before .she was my age 



230 80XXETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

and a ridiculous spirit of melancholy that sometimes 
takes possession of me had in a way given me a 
presentiment that I was not destined to live as 
long as most people. On this account I had learned 
to think kindly of Death and frequently in the best of 
good humor I have told Irene as well as others that 
the Stern Eeaper had no horrors for me and that it 
mattered little whether life or death was ahead — 
I was ready and eager for both. This idea used to 
worry Irene greatly and she would most anxiously en- 
quire was she in any way to blame, or was it because 
1 did not want to live on general principles that 
made me talk so. She would invariably on each such 
occasion try to console by assuring me that she would 
never marry again if I died. I would then- laugh it off 
by attempting to describe my successor. But it was 
no joke to her and as I never spoke of what I would 
do if she died first she took it for granted that my 
silence meant my unwillingness to reciprocate the 
promise. With this conclusion she frequently sug- 
gested that while she would not marry under any 
circumstances she would like if I would promise not 
to marry for two years after her death and then if I 
did marry it would be somebody entirely different 
from her. As I f(^lt so confident of her outliving me I 
never even talked seriously with her as to this and it 
is now the greatest regret of my life, that I seemed so 
selfish and unappreciative. 

One of Irene^s peculiarities consisted in strange 
situations continually suggesting themselves to her. 



Every day she would have a new query for me and for 
several meals that query would be the principal topic 
of conversation. She would usually start off by saying 
^'Now, like David Harum , let^s sposeii a case.^' On oiie 
occasion her constant theme was "What particular 
necessities might arise that would induce her to speak 
an untruth." On another occasion she spent hours 
'■deciding the amount of money she would require 
before sh^ wouM consent to wound either me or her- 
■self sufficient to draw blood. There was a price all 
i-ight but needless to say it was fabulous. A few days 
before her death she had raised the question which of 
all her relatives slie would choose if by some chance 
they were all doom^ed to tiie instanter except the 
one she selected. For all such propositions sh^wouM 
have a reasonable reply and I well remember tne rela*- 
tive she selected was her next oldest sister who owing 
to her useful life as a sick nurse and her general high 
purpose would on that account do more real good 
hi the world than any other she might save. 

In order the more truthfully to show the relation^ 
«hip that had sprung up between us and therefore the 
better to understand the ending of it all I insert here 
■extracts from my diary which were written during 
the nine weeks of our marriage, two of these entries 
having been made by Irene and the others by myself: 
<I have had some misgivings as to Whether or not I 
should make public these two entries made by my 
departed wife. I withhold many letters that might 
be even a better indication of her character than those 



232 SONNETS AND LOYK SONGS. 

entries on the ground that they were entirely private 
and were meant for no other eyes than mine. In 
writing up my diary however Irene well knew that 
some day if I lived I proposed to make use of what 
was therein written. If she bad no objection there- 
fore to the publishing of her sentiments it would 
surely be mock modesty on my part to be more par- 
ticular) : 

On May thirteenth, the first time I w^rote up the 
diary after our marriage, I said : 

EvERNiA Street, West Palm Beach, Monday 
Evening, May 13th. AVell I am a married man. Irene 
is my wife. I am living in my own house (so far as a 
two year lease will make it mine). We own the fur 
niture and are monarchs of all we survey when we are 
at home. After all married or single I am always 
G. G. C, and in any state there are troubles as well as 
comforts. The scene is somewhat changed I confess 
whether for better or worse I am at a loss to know\ 
There is no doubt whatever that I love my little lady 
just as much as I did before marriage and I am 
inclined to believe that I have not as yet fallen very 
much in her estimation. She works like a Trojan to 
do her part of the home making. She strives to 
please me and consequently her efforts are crowned 
with success. But new responsibilities that I had not 
anticipated have arisen that are harder than all I ever 
looked forward to put together to measure up to. As 
usual my situation is unique. It is only one man in a 
thousand — if there are that many — has to live up to 
my standard. And as I begin to look my condition 
straight in the face I begin to see that the "Divinity 
that shapes our ends rough hew them as we vvill'^ has 
had a hand in forming my new relationship. I want 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 233 

to live a pare, clean life but flesh is weak and so Prov- 
idence has given me an Angel for a bride — an Angel 
who it would be cruelty to bend to my will and who 
by a sweet compulsion therefore is idealizing me. 

On May twenty-sixth appears the following: 

EvERNiA Street, Sunday, May 26th. I have now 
been married a month and that month in spite of 
numerous little annoyances has been unquestionably 
the happiest in my whole existence. 

It has been a month of new experiences — of change 
of life both private and public. At the office I have 
been taking up the broken thread of a legal career 
and have been delving into law with a vim, while at 
home I have been striving to adjust my old disposi- 
tion to that of my new wife with indifferent success. 
The introduction is over however both at the office 
and at home and I am now determined on settling 
down to w^ork in real earnest. I am more than ever 
satisfied with my choice of partners both in law and 
in love. 

Irene is a most cleanly woman and cleanliness 
even the Bible admits is next to godliness. She 
is also deliciously affectionate. As a housekeeper she 
is making remarkable strides. I do not blame her 
now for objecting to the nickname of "Dora^' which I 
used to call her in our courting days. She has all the 
winsomeness of David Copperfield^s child wife but as 
a matron she is far her superior. I am very proud 
of her. 

C is also a grand fellow to have as a partner. 

He is a staunch friend, an able lawyer, and an honora- 
ble man. We have not yet drawn up any articles of 
copartnership but are just rocking along head over 
ears in work and more piling in daily. I have spent 
several days at Miami on business for the firm during 
the month and have had conferences with some of 



234 SONNETS AXT^ LOVE SONGS, 

the biggest men in the country. * * * We were 
remembered by about fifty people on the occasion 
of our marriage. Among my friends I might mention 
. Irene's friends were more numerous. 

On June sixth my wife wrote ^ 

Eyernia Street, We,st Palm Beach, June 6th. His 
birthday that made him thirty-four found him in 
Miami. He came up on the morning train and 
brought ghidness back to his liome. He tarried only 
a few minutes here on Evernia street for he was 

needed at the office, Mr. C being sick with the 

toothache. What he did during the morning I cannot 
tell. I only know that he came home early for dinner 
as I had not had time to "powder up a little.'' But 
this did not matter to him. We had an extra nice 
dinner in remembrance of his birthday and little 

Walter C took dinner with us. Oh how delightful 

it was for us to be together again. After he had had 
a short nap he returned to the office. Sometime 
during the afternoon he went to Palm Beach to see 

Mr. F , He returned home early this evening to 

say that he expected to return to Miami again tonight. 

Then he called across the street on Mr. D who is 

sick, after which he left me again. He will come 
home on Saturday. Now he is on the train going 
farther and farther from me. How delightful it was 
of him to say this afternoon that he found home so 
much more pleasing and comfortable than his board- 
ing place in Miami. Hesaid it without knowing wliat 
a happy thought (expressed) it was, nor that it would 
be remembered and treasured long after material 
gifts are lost and forgotten. And so his birthday is 
over and I am going to sleep and dream that I feel 
his soft hair against my cheek ajid his heart beating 
beneath my hand. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 235 

On the fourteenth I wrote : 

EvERNiA oTREET, JuNE 14th. My better half wrote 
the last entry for me at my request as I did not care 
to have my thirty-fourth anniversary pass without at 
least entering up my diary. I never dreamed how- 
ever that such an entry as the above would be the 
result. It is only a few minutes ago since I saw it for 
the lirst time and my first impulse was to go and kiss 
the darling little lady who had talked of me with 
such tenderness. I grow to love her more and more 
daily. She is on the sick list today and my heart is 
bleeding for her in consequence. 

My natal day was remembered by my wife with a 
special dinner and a pair of gold sleeve buttons; 
by my sister with a loving letter and a fine picture 
frame enclosing the picture of a girl not unlike her 
little Margaret — the yoi^ng lady who distinguishes 
me by the name of "Uncle Dodo^' ; and by my adopted 

mother Mrs. S who sent me two tasty ties and my 

wife a wedding present of acu^hion cover. I feel ever 
so much better off than 1 did last birthday which I 
spent in Lethbridge, Alberta. And yet to have told 
me then that I would be in Florida now practicing law 

in partnership with C , married to Irene and living 

in my own home all daintily furnished and with our 
own money I would have thought it impossible. * * 

On the twenty-second she wrote: 

EvERNTA Street, June 22nd. Not only has George 
neglected his private correspondence and his news- 
paper work; but his diary too has missed him. It is 
because (I speak it low) I want him ''to come and 
eat'' or "go to work'' or "come to bed." Just now he 
has "gone to work," though it is almost eight o'clock 
and he has already done a long day's work and came 
home to supper looking weary. I expect him to 



236 SONNETS AND LOTE SONGS. 

return about ten p. m. Mr. C hus been in Miami 

the greater part of the week but he returned this 
morning and as they have a superabundance of busi- 
ness on hand it is necessary for them to work tonight. 
After supper when George returned to the office I 
went down town with him to get something for Mrs* 
H — 's charity box and then returned home without 
him so 

"Here I am little jumping Joan. 

When nobody's with me I'm always alone.'' 
J.ast Sunday was a most delightful and satisfactory 
•day. We fixed up George's trunk of letters and keep- 
sakes. We found his diaries kept ever since he was 
fourteen years old and which he had not looked at for 
years. We read the lirst jiages of this same story of 
wanderings, hardships, disappointed efforts and par- 
tial successes all of which combined have made him 
what he is and is yet to be. Then we read about his 
trip from Alaska in a canoe and the loneliness and 
the danger of it all ; and some day "after our ship 

€OMES in" and all OUR WORK IS DONE AND WE ARE 
FREE WE ARE BOTH GOING ON ANOTBER CANOE TRIP 
OVER THAT SAME WILD WASTE, HE AND I TOGETHER, AND 
OH WHAT A DELIGHTFUL TIME WE ARE GOING TO HAVE. 

Last week while Mr. C was in Miami George 

spent his spare time during three days looking up the 

law with regard to L 's difficulty. He found there 

was no ordinance against selling liquor on Sundays 
besides several other points. Day before yesterday 
they had the trial and George's work had not been 

in vain. L was acquitted although his case had 

appeared almost hopeless at first. I was delighted, 

not because I want L or any other man to sell 

whisky or any other intoxicating liquor on Sunday or 
on any other day, but because I want 0. <k C. to "chill 
^em and curry 'em" wherever they go. 



SONNETS AND LOA^E SONGS, 23T 

On the twenty-third I wrote: 

EvERNiA Street, June 23ri>. The preceding entry 
tells about the most exciting feature of my lastw^eek's 

life, viz the L trial. L is a saloon kepeer but 

he is and has always been my loyal client as well 
as the firm's client and so there was a special reason 
even more than the fee there was in it why we should 
get him free. It was two interests of my life clashing. 
It was my early formed temperance tendencies 
running up against my gratitude, my pride, and after 
all my duty, for it is a law^yer's duty to defend who- 
ever asks for his assistance. 

As Irene has said I have recently allowed my cor- 
respondence and in fact every other interest but law 
to go by the board. It is work^ eat, make love and 
sleep from one wreck's end to another. But even that 
is quite a satisfaction. I never felt more happy in 
my life — substantially happy I mean — for I have 
often been in a fooPs paradise that perhaps for the 
time being w^as more ecstatic — pleasures of the imagi- 
nation being always more profuse and glossy than 
those of reality. *^ ***«**• 

My club life too seems to have come to an untimely 
end. In spite of all my good intentions I have not yet 
met with the Masons, Oddfellow^s or Fraternal Union, 
although with the exception of about five dollars to 
the F. and A.M. I am in good standing all around. 
Home comforts are too seductive for the old time 
attractions to regain their strength — and yet I look 
upon such associations as a protection of home. In 
this light therefore I owe it to home to attend the 
meetings. Hut talking of home reminds me that our 
little home is now practically all furnished and while 
it has taken all our ready money to furnish it w^e are 
very proud of its app(n^ranc(^ Irene is wMth me in 



238 SONNETS AND LOVE S0NG8. 

everything and my greatest happiness is seeing her 
pleased. 

And on the thirtieth (the last entry I made before 
her death) is inscribed as another proof of life's 
uncertainty : 

EvEKNiA Street, West Palm Beach, June 30til. It 
is Sunday and I have been very lazy all day. Last 

w^eek has been a very busy one at the office. C 

has been away three days and I have been left alone 
to wrestle with all comers. The income of the office 
during June has been phenomenal and has netted me 
the biggest salary I ever made. Still I have worlxcd 
pretty hard for it, and am compelled to leave Irene 
very often alone in the evening on that account. 
This I always feel guilty for doing and is one reason 
that makes me feel very glad to have Sunday come 
when I can be with her most of the day to make up. 

My wife is talking enthusiastically of buying a 
piano on the instalment plan and paying the instal- 
ments herself by means of a class of pupils. I am 
agreeable as I like the idea of her keeping in practice 
at any rate. Some day perhaps I will find time to put 
my old ambition about interpreting the great com- 
posers by means of poetry into practice and I know of 
no grander occupation for a married couple to be in 
than that one should develop skill and patience in 
playing while the other thinks out and versifies what 
the music relates. 

I wish that I might be permitted to write all I 
remember about the subject of this sketch. There is 
nothing that I know, though I knew her with all the 
intimacy of a husband, that w^ould make even the 
most fastidious think the less of her. All who met 
her admitted that she was beautiful, with a beauty 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 239* 

born of gentleness and purity. Her every act was- 
deJicacy personified. She was always sincere and 
believed others to be likewise. This sincerity was the- 
secret of her success as a teacher and won the respect 
of her pupils whik^ her gentleness won their love. la 
the presence of children she was natural and did not 
appear to cater to them at all but the little ones soon 
learned to trust her more than if she went out of her 
way to pay them attention. 

Her love of the beautiful was phenomenaL Flow- 
ers, scenery or painting could always be sure of her 
praise and I have seen her get down on her knees 
beside a delicately flowered rug that she had pur- 
chased and stroke it as affectionately as she might 
a kitten while she ejaculated "Isn't it lovely ?''' 
We had two rose trees growing beside our little 
home and I have time and again been called by her 
with the most lively enthusiasm to see a new bud that 
was opening or a rose that had just fully blown. The 
forest and the ocean had attractions for her that but 
one in a million saw. She was well educated but her 
modest nature would never allow her to display either 
her learning or her accomplishments. I could exem- 
plify by some cherished act every trait I have been 
describing but space forbids and I nov^ turn to 
the last days of her life with a painful pleasure for 
her last hours are an epitome of her whole existence. 

My law partner and I had been overwhelmed with 
work at the office during the month of June and the 
task that was most important we had arranged to send 



240 SONNETS AX]) LOVP: SONGS. 

away on the morning train of July fourth. On the 
night of the third in spite of previous overtime it was 
not complete and we arranged to stay up all night in 
order to get it done. The w^ork at this stage consisted 
in verifying and at eleven o'clock p. m. the lamplight 
and the long strain began to play havoc with my eyes 
and I was compelled to stop work. 

I went home promising to be back and finish the 
work at 4:30 the next morning feeling sure that the 
rest would make it possible to continue the work by 
daylight. I accidentally awakened Irene by my re- 
turn and as soon as she heard that my eyes had failed 
she volunteered to get up and take my place in hold- 
ing copy. I thanked her of course but would not hear 
of such a proposition. I told her how^ever that I 
w^ould depend on her rousing me at 4 :30 a. m. as with 
the hard day's w^ork I was liable to "sleep in." This 
injunction she accepted and in order to keep it I half 
believe she did not sleep any more that night. 

It rained most of the night and consequently it w^as 
very dark and I was aroused three or four different 
times by her striking matches to find out the time. 
Sure enough at 4:30 I was informed that it wa^ time 
to get up. I w^as very sleepy and as it was still dark 
I made the excuse that I had better wait till it was 
light and then' turned over to finish my nap. Irene 
felt responsible in the matter and so in a few^ mo- 
ments I w^as shamed into getting up by finding her 
already in the kitchen. 

[ went over to work without taking any breakfast 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 241 

promising to be back when the work was done and by 
five o^clock my partner and I had gotten well down to 
business when a knock at the door informed iis of a 
caller. Upon opening it we were both surprised and 
delighted to find my wife standing there with a tray 
upon which was a pot of coffee, two cups and saucers 
and toast. She had had to come in the rain to bring 
us this refreshment but she was determined to do her 
part and we both (especially my partner) appreciated 
the effort. 

We got the work off all right and proceeded to 
enjoy the festivities that had been arranged by the 
town in celebration of the day. Irene and I had 
invited her people to spend the day with us and so 
bright and early we met the train from Boca Raton 
and escorted our visitors about town. I had been 
appointed chairman of the encertainment committee 
for the celebration and owing to our rush of business 
at the office had not exerted myself beyond one full 
committee meeting. The result was that instead of 
six addresses as arranged and desired only two were 
given and I felt guilty in the matter. I therefore 
took occasion to lengthen the program by myself 
making some remarks. This I felt I had authority to 
do owing to my having refused an invitation to speak 
in the early stages of getting up the program and 
owing to the further fact that I was chairman. The 
two speakers who preceded me had been somewhat 
serious in what they had to say and so I undertook to 
speak in a lighter vein for the sake of variety. T do 



242 SONNETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 

not imagine that my extemporaneous effort was at all 
classical — for — tell it not in Gath — I am inclined to 
think many of my auditors judged it an exhibition of 
bad taste on my part to talk since my name was not 
formally placed on the program — but my wife who 
was in the audience and who knew how guilty I felt 
at the backing out of the various speakers was de- 
lighted at my method of lengthening the program and 
when I got home her sincere commendation was worth 
all the chagrin and the apparent misconception of my 
motive by others. It was the first time she had heard 
me make a public address and she felt it her duty as a 
wife in a most affectionate manner to put me in 
countenance with myself and to tell me how proud 
my success (as she termed it) had made her feel. It 
was a new and singular experience for me, but once 
having known such a pleasure, on account of its loss, 
the prize of all future feats will be cheapened 
materially. 

It was the first time since our marriage that Irene 
had undertaken to entertain more than one or two 
guests at a time and consequently the excitement of 
the day left her very fatigued. Still she was very happy. 
Things seemed to turn out all right and as we sat on 
our verandah in the evening looking at the fireworks 
she was full of plans for similar undertakings in the 
future. I was afraid she would be prostrated next 
day but when Friday came she claimed to be in the 
best of health and spent the afternoon in making 
calls. This occupation was always a source of merri- 



SOXXETS AND LOVE SONGS. 243 

ment for her for she continually insisted that the 
leaving of the card, whether she saw the people or not, 
was the whole show and if on her return she found 
cards under the door, of people who had found her 
away from home, she was especially jocular and often 
remarked how delighted the callers must have been 
when they found her out, for they could then pay off 
just that many more calls and be just as well 
satisfied. 

On Friday evening on my arrival at six o^clock I 
found her lying down and ill from having eaten some 
unripe peaches. She had a chronic stomach trouble 
and her mother and I on the day previous had ob- 
tained her promise tliat she would rot eat between 
meals as we imagined that perhaps that had some- 
thing to do with her trouble. Consequently when I 
got home she was somewhat reticent about her illness 
■as she felt that she had broken her promise to me. 
At last she told me about it and I pretended (for her 
good) to be annoyed. I shall never forget how my 
assumed annoyance affected her, for throwing her 
arms around my neck she looked entreatingly into my 
eyes and begged of me ''not to be angry with her as 
she would neverdo it again.'' Of course such an appeal 
would have melted the heart of a stone let alone 
one who loved her, so I at once forgave and forgot. 
She got better as the hours w^ent by and although 
still lying down she undertook to teach me to sing the 
refrain of her favorite song "The Pride of the Ball.'' 
It was one of the happiest evenings I had ever spent 



244 SONXETS AXl) T.OVE 80XGfS\ 



with her. The little jar had made each of as more 
than unusually solicitous to please and for half an. 
hour I made many futile and ludicrous attempts ta 
get the right tune. The words of the refrain r 

Pr'oiTdly she reig^ued as a qu<^en upon her throne, 
Clieeks that; were flushed like a rose in" heaven j^rown;; 
G-raceful and fair, she was loved and wooed by all; 
Sbt^ stole my heart— the Pride of the Ball. 

have since come to my mind a thousand tinnes and are 
indeed the very description of her to which my mem- 
ory clings. Finally we stopped because she was afraid 
I might disturb the neighbors. During the evening' 
and while she was yet lying down a piano " agent, 
having heard of our intention to purchase a piano,- 
ealled, and I undertook to negotipte with him in the 
parlor. As the piano was for my wife I made fre- 
quent trips between her room and the parlor to dis- 
cuss details and she became &o interested that I had 
great difficulty to restrain her from conversing with 
the ageut with the wall between them, I event uallj" 
dismissed him with the request that he return pn the 
following Monday when my wife would be able to talk 
over the matter in person. Little did either of us 
think at that moment that another Monday or in fact 
another night would find her in another world. At 
nine o'clock seemingly quite recovered she relired^ 
but before doing so she knelt by the bed as had been 
her invariable custom since our marriage and offered 
up her evening orison. I had never heard her pray 
although she had frequently knelt by my side and 



allowed me to voice a prayer for both of us. My 
religion is of a most uncertain kind. There are bat one 
'or two propositions upon which I am comparatively 
Kjlear. One is that God surely lives and another that 
•all men are brothers and we should try to treat each 
other as such. These thoughts particularly im- 
pressed upon me by a study of Emerson have beem 
rounded into the following vers^es : 
THE OVERSOUL. 
What a pleasure there's in knowing 

I'm a part of God's great plan ; 
What a privilege then in doing 
All for him I truly can. 

What a balm there's in the knowledge 

That what I sincerely do, 
Is His Spirit working in me, 

And, confined, comes bursting through. 

Just to think that througli each action 
Born of this — my warring frame, 

He, the great undimmed attraction, 
Speaks, my brothers to reclaim. 

That same God I see in mountains. 

In the plains and mighty sea. 
In great rivers, bubbling fountains, 

In the flowers, — is seen in me. 

When grim Passion tears my vitals., 

And I fight it to the death; 
''Tis not me, but God that conquers, 

Me it was that gave up breath. 



246 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

And whenever I work in earnest, 

And my deeds with glory shine, 
Thou, Most High, my power adornest ; 

With Thy help I'm made divine. 

Give me then, oh Great Creator, 
Greater power with flesh to cope ; 

Let me tear aside its hindrance, 
To give Thee more light, more scope. 

AVondrous theme. Great Soul of JS^ature, 
In Thy praise I'm filled with song ; 

I, a mortal wayward creature, 
Still to Thee, in Thee belong. 

Irene never questioned my religious views as above 
expressed and I believe on that account that she 
respected and agreed with them. In fact as I have 
before suggested she herself had been beset with 
honest doubts on the question of Hereafter and was 
therefore one with me in the sentiments portrayed in 

IIS^TOLEEATION. 

AVhat makes men contemn the poor negro's black face 

And hold Indians in detestation ; 
AVhat makes us think Mongols quite foreign to grace ? 
It's racial in toleration. 

Wliat first causes strife — then develops to war, 

AVhat scatters abroad desolation ; 
AVhat robs our exchequers of treasure in store ? 

It's national in toleration. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 247 

Why do men of party so arrogant grow ; 

AVhen theirs is the administration ; 
AVhat makes them condemn their opponents to woe ? 

Political intoleration. 

Why are we divided in classes and caste, 

According to wealth, birth or station ; 

And why do the higher, inferiors detest ? 
Positional intoleration. 

Why do temperance advocates cause so much harm, 

Instead of their kind^s elevation ; 
What steals from their efforts thexjleasure and charm ? 

Fanatical intoleration. 

Why are there so many agnostics abroad, 

Who fain would profess adoration ; 
But scarcely know how — so beclouded is God ? 

It^s bigoted intoleration. 

Ah friends ! ^tis a shameful, a lasting disgrace, 

A slur on our civilization, 
To think that in life's short and uncertain race 

We find time for intoleration. 

If ''do unto others as we'd be done by'' 

Were really the world's inspiration, 

How quickly we would from intolerance fly 
To practice diviiie toleration. 

What was her request to the Most High on that last 
night of her life I cannot even conjecture. I do not 



248 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

pray regularly myself — in fact, as I have said, I 
am most unorthodox — and it is only when I feel 
the need of a prayer that I kneel to ask for 
help or to express my gratitude. Within the last month 
of our marriage I had become even more irregular than 
usual and my prayers on each such occasion I had 
gradually curtailed into five short words : ''Dear God 
bless Irene ; Amen.^' This prayer I had reasoned out 
however unreasonable it may seem at first notice ; 
for I had argued that unless I was made honorable 
she could not be really blessed and unless she was 
blessed I could not be really happy. To be honorable 
was one of the requests embodied in the prayer and 
to be honorable it would be necessary for me to be 
true to myself and to love all mankind. After she had 
been on her knees for some time on this the last 
night of her life I knelt down by her side and 
for the last time made the prayer above men- 
tioned in her hearing. It is just possible my 
prayer was answered in a way that showed the 
weakness and fallacy of my argument. 

The next morning — the only one she was ever 
again destined to see — we were both up early and, 
as a furt?ier example of her self sacrifice, when 
at breakfast she observed that one of my eyes always 
more or less weak was weaker than usual she proposed 
that we forego the expense of the piano upon which 
her heart was set and that I use the money to go to 
Atlanta or elsewhere and undergo treatment with a 
specialist. I laughed at the suggestion and assured 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 249 

her I would rather have the piano at once even if 
that decision meant that I had to wait forever for 
better sight. 

When I got to the office immediately after breakfast 
some business had arisen that required me to go to 
Jupiter on the nine o'clock train. At half past eight 
I returned to tell her I expected to be gone for the 
day and while not yet quite sure I was going I bade 
her goodbye in anticipation. A lady friend had just 
called in and when I left she was eagerly discussing 
what music she would require when we got the piano. 
I went to Jupiter all right and when I saw her again 
she was on her death bed. 

As soon as I was gone a bright idea had struck her 
that she would use the day to begin a drawing I had 
urged her to malie to hang in the parlor. She had 
already selected a subject and had determined to 
copy in enlarged form a picture of Sidney Carton, a 
character of Dickens in "The Tale of Two Cities." 
The picture was that of a man on a scaffold about to 
be executed and was anything but pleasant for an 
artist to pore over. Still there was a great deal of 
moral strength to be seen in the countenance of 
Carton and her sympathy with the story had influ- 
enced her choice. Miss L an artist friend had 

called on her during the morning and they had con- 
sulted together about the picture and Irene had told 
this friend how she expected to surprise me wMth the 
work on my return. She had only made the border 
lines on the draft however when she took violently ill 



250 S0NXET8 AND LOYE 80NG8. 

and from about 11:30 a. m. until ten at night was in 
abject agony although generous neighbors and an 
able physician had tried to their utmost to alleviate 
her pain. 

It was about 7:30 p.m. when I got home entirely 
oblivious till the moment of my arrival of her condi- 
tion. Probably it would have made no difference had 
1 known for I cannot see what I could have done 
more than others in such a sudden unexpected attack. 
She was moaning with pain, begging for chloroform — 
for air — for ice — for anything that might afford relief 
when I reached her but even in her agony she was 
unselfish enough to ask if I had had supper. At ifiter- 
vals her old-time modesty and humility would get the 
upper hand when she would ejaculate ''Oh let me die ; 
I'ii: no good I I^m no good I^' till at length a kind 
Providence took her at her word and she breathed 
her last. Poor girl how she suffered in those two 
hours before she died. I would gladly have exchanged 
places with her but only those who have been in such 
a position know the helplessness of it all. 



PART FOUR, 

On July eighth (two days after Irene^s death) I 
made the following entry in the diary that had grown 
to be "our^^ property: 

EvEKxr.v Street, Monday, July 8th. As I read the 
last entry a thrill of inexpressible anguish harrows 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 251 

my soul. The light of my life has gone out. Irene — 
my eternal love — my perfect wife is DEAD. Oh God ! 
how can I supj)ort it. I am now aloiie in "our^^ little 
home for the first time having just been down to see 
her father and mother off on the train. I cannot tell 
the beginning or ending of my woe for it already 
seems to have lasted forever. The darling who has 
been so loving, so faithful, so comforting to me was 
well and hearty on Saturday morning at 8 :30 when I 
kissed her good bye for the last time. When I 
returned Saturday evening from a business trip to 
Neptune I found her desperately ill with the house 
full of neighbors ministering to her and at ten p. m. 
she was cold and still in Death. An attack of cholera 
morbus the doctor said but to me it is the hand of 
God smiting me for not having been more apprecia- 
tive of the Angel He had placed at my side. I loved 
her vehemently at times but all too often I allowed 
self to step in between ; while God bless her never 
failing little heart she loved me always with an ardor' 
worthy of a better cause. But I am so nervous I dare 
not write more. AVe buried her yesterday and the 
house is vacant. 

Within the week I tried to express my sorrow in 
verse (for I have formed the habit to rely in any 
trouble upon solitude, my diary and a poetic vein) 
with the following result : 

IN MEMORY OF IRENE. 

(My bride wife, wiio <lied after an illness of eight hours on 
July lith. J901, at West Palm Beach, Florida, just two months 
and nine days after our marriage,) 

They have laid her away neath the sheltering pines, 
In the garments in which she was wed ; 

On her tresses of ebon a rose-wreath reclines — 
Like a crown on fair princesses head. 



SOXN1ETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 



By the sound of Atlantic's weird nuptial march, 
Near the orange blossoms odorous breath,, 

With a tropical Kb for hymeneal arch. 
She today lies the consort of Death. 

But stricken and cheerless T wander forlorn. 

Of the true heart that loved me bereft ; 
The happiest bridegroom but yesterday morn— 

Now the saddest of mourners is left', 
While her love words in echo yet linger around — 

While the rays of her smile are yet bright — 
I awake with a start from the pleasure profound, 

To behold my life robbed of its light. 

She is gone, she is gone! And in desolate mood 

I would fain force my way to her side; 
Through the shadowy gates I would press if I could 

To again clasp my beautiful bride. 
All the future without her is hidden in gloom; 

E'en the past chides with memories keen : 
While the merciless present makes welcome a doom 

That will lead to my lovely Irene. 



About the time of her death all local papers com- 
mented upon it with high encomiums upon her noble 
character. From these comments I reprint the fol- 
lowing: 



SOISIN'ETS AND LOVE SOXGS. 253^ 

[Iq the Lake Worth News,] 

A CHAPIiET OF FJLOWEKS PLACED UPON THE GRAVE OF 

Mks GvAy. G CuRRiE wy a Friend-. 
''It 15 not growing like a tree 
In bulk, doth make man better be; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, d-ry, bald, and sear;: 
A lily of a day 
Is fairer far in May^ 
Although it fall and die that mg'ht— 
It was the plant and flower of Light. 
In small proportion we just beauties see; 
And in short measures life may perfect be." 

Irene Carrie has passed away. In the bloom and. 
beauty of matured young wmiianhood the golden cord 
is suddenly parted and this saintly soul soars ou1> 
beyond the stars into never ending life and light. 
Owt yonder where the hosts of heaven welcome wan- 
dering souls this kindred spirit finds rest — sweet rest. 
And never whiter soul winged its flight to the beauti- 
ful land of the leal. 

As Irene R she was best known and loved ^ 

lor her brief two months as a bride was only a dream. 
Many a little heart will sob with sorrow when told 
that the teacher they loved so much has gone from 
earth away. Her gentle spirit fitted her for her 
chosen work in the school room ; and her infinite 
patience and love for children left an impress for good 
upon them. The little ones loved her loyally, for slie 
was their friend. Her tender solicitude and loving 
kindness for the helpless, human or animal, touciied 
and turned all hearts to her, even the most wayward. 
The wail of the weak was to her a tragedy. 1'here is 
not a living soul who can lay upon her grave tonight 
as dead sea fruit a thoughtless word or deed. If she 
could not speak well of one she would not speak of 
him at all. If the good she wrougiit could be heaped 
upon her grave as flowers a mound would arise to 



254 SONKETs and t.OVE SONC48. 

meet and to greet tomorrow's sun and scent the sum- 
mer air with a perfume unknown in this land of 
fragrance. 

As men and women we are prone to hero worship ; 
we love to extol the deeds of the great. For my part 
T would rather discover some beautiful soul like Irene 
Curriers and chel*isli the memory thereof than to 
remember earth's noblest. With every shout for the 
victor that floods and fills the firmament above wells 
up the wail of the widow and the orphan. There is 
no thorn hid away in the life of one like this to prick 
the memorj^ of man or woman. LiNe a purling brook 
threading its way through some sequestered nook far* 
away in sylvan glade, where the birds sing sweetest 
and the wild flowers bud and bloom and blossom, this 
life with its rippling music of love ran on to its close. 

Only the other day she linked her life with a con- 
genial companion, and the further voyage seemed 
most auspicious. Actuated by the same motives, by 
the same desires, and buoyed by the same hopes, 
earth could hold no greater joy. And so began the 
new life. And then came the tragedy. "Yet, after 
all, it may be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour 
of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every 
sail, to dash against the unseen rock, and in an 
instant hear the billows roar above a sunken ship. 
^For whether in mid sea or among the breakers of the 
farther shore, a wreck at last must mark the end of 
each and all. And every life, no matter if ics every 
hour is rich with love and every moment jeweled with 
a joy, will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad and 
deep and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof 
of mystery and death.'' 

To father, mother, brothers and sisters we tender 
condolence, AVe know that they will find consolation 



•honkets axd loVe soxOs. 255 

in each other's love and companionship, though the 
vacant chair be a reminder of the loved one gone. In 
the presence of the great grief of the lonely watcher 
for his lost Irene we stand appalled. Words are im- 
potent. Bereft of father, mother, brother and boy- 
hood's dearest friend, he became a restless rover and 
wandered wide. At last he found the one thing need- 
ful to fill his heart with hope* and joy — a loving, 
tender, sympathetic wife. Their souls came together, 
the heart of the one, like a fragile vine clinging to a 
sturdy oak, intertwined its tendrils about the stouter 
heart of the other, and thus interlaced they were pre- 
pared to buffet the world's adversities. With love 
more than mortal he loved her. The inscrutable 
hand of fate has torn a Way the vine, and now comes 
the agony of waiting.— Bex H. Doster, 

The following also appeared in the Daily Journal of 
Lockport, New York, over the nom de plume of 
"Pica Case:'' 

IjIfe's Evanescent Dream, 

In prose and poetry, song and story, we have all 
heard of the uncertainties of life, and incidents of 
everyday occurrence have illustrated it to us. But 
never before did it come home to me as yesterday, 
when an obituary notice in a Southern paper in- 
formed me of the death of one of the best friends I 
had on earth. 

In the troublous days of the winter of 1897-98 and 
the summer of 1898 I was covering war news in the 
peninsula of Florida and the waters of the Florida 
Straits. While in Jacksonville, Fla., I met a bright, 
intelligent young woman who was, although born in 
the North, a typical daughter of the South. I became 
interested in her because she was of a particuhirly 



256 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

bright, lovable, generous disposition, sympathetic, 
patriotic, kind to all with whom she came in contact 
— a girl in a thousand. 

After I came north again we exchanged views by 
letter. I had some literary tastes and so had she and 
it was interesting to tell each other what we thought 
and hoped for, and to discuss the future and the pol- 
icies of the country which we both loved. 

In that same far away State of Florida there re- 
sided for a time a bright, ambitious, high-spirited 
young man, who being bereft of relatives and his 
dearest friend had become a wanderer. Last fall he 
returned to the South after an absence of over three 
years and for the second time met the lovable young 
woman to whom I have referred. The second meeting 
was Fate, and as was natural, he fell in love with her. 
Their hopes, aims, ambitions, desires, thoughts and 
purposes in life were similar, and one day I received 
an announcement of their approaching marriage. 

On April 27 last these two young lives were united 
and a pathway of many years of happiness and useful- 
ness seemingly had opened before them. The hus- 
band w^orshipped his beautiful little bride, while she 
adored him. It was only a month ago that I heard 
from them, and they were perfectly happy. The 
letter contained a pretty little chat about the young 
bride's joy in her own, "very own'' little home, and 
what a pleasure it was for her to look after all the 
details of housekeeping. She also spoke of the hopes 
w^hich her husband had and the confidence in his 
future which she felt. 

It was a pretty picture, and a confirmed old bach- 
elor sighed even as he smiled while he read the dainty 
missive. Yesterday morning I was thinking of these 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 257 

happy friends in Florida when a West Palm Beach 
paper was laid on my desk. I opened it and read a 
marked article. 

It told me that the bright little bride was dead and 
that a heartbroken husband had been summoned to 
her bedside almost at the moment that her spirit was 
released from earthly clay last Saturday night. She 
was ill but a few hours and even her parents had not 
time to reach the sick chamber before the bright, 
gentle spirit fled. 

I folded the newspaper and laid it away sadly and 
thoughtfully, and my heart went out to that stricken 
husband in the far away land of sunshine and flowers 
as I speculated on the fleeting and evanescent char- 
acter of life. 

But this little woman had not lived her brief life 
in vain. Hundreds of children bless her memory and 
more than one man of the world is better because she 
lived. Her spotless life and loving kindness were 
inspirations to all who knew her, and her memory is 
honored in more than one state in the Union, 

The full extent of my desolation did not dawn upon 
me for a month or so after her departure ; then I 
began to realize that she was gone and gone forever. 
To the first days of this knowledge the elegy that 
follows owes its birth : 

ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A WIFE. 

My lovely one has departed ; 

She has wandered into the darkness. 
Though loudly I call her to come ; 

Yet vain are my dearest entreatie^s. 



258 SOXXETS AXD LOVE SOXGS. 

The place of which she was part — 
The home where she reigned as a princess 

Is vacant, alas, and bereft, 
And in her stead reigns a horror. 

I look around me unceasingly — 

Peer through the whispering shadows ; 
But lo my loved one is wanting 

And the silence resounds with her absence. 
AVhere I was wont to behold her, 

Industrious, beautiful, conliding; 
AVhere I had hitherto heard 

The song of her voice and her garments, 
All is now blank and still 

And my heart sinks heavily within me. 

Oh thou dear light of my life — 

Thou beacon of hope and hereafter ! 
Oh my beloved, my bride, 

My chosen, my queen among women ! 
Am I to see you no more ? 

Is my bliss and my happiness ended ? 
Speak? oh speak Love and say 

That our aims have not been delusion. 

I know you were better than I ; 

I appreciate too well my un worth in ess ; 
And in my moments of calm, 

I have knelt in gratitude often : 
Thanking the Lord Most High 

For the grace of even your memory. 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 259 

But bitterness seasons my thanks 
And my gratitudo proves evanescent ; 

For when the fear close comes 
That we are divided forever 

The pangs pierce deeper than arrows 
And I cry oat in angry rebellion. 

Honey lips ! Dear Heart ! Darling ! 

I appeal to your vows of devotion. 
Remember if now you can 

Your promise of love everlasting. 
Send but the glance of your eye — 

The ray of your smile transcendental, 
Back through the gloom and the darkness — 

Back o'er the chasm that divides us. 
Tell me by visible sign 

That the future holds yet a reunion. 
Tell me beloved that still 

By exertion I some day may join you. 
Then will my suffering cease— ^ 

Then will my joy be rekindled. 

But no ! My loved one has sfone — 

She has vanished into the darkness. 
Though loudly I call her to come 

In vain are my dearest entreaties. 
The place of which she was part — 

The home where she reigned as a princess 
Is vacant, is empty, is lone, 

Is drear and bereft and deserted, 
Now in her cherished stead 

Reigns an indescribable horror. 



260 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

I look around me unceasingly — 
Peer through the whispering shadows ; 

But lo, my loved one is wanting 
xlnd the silence re&ounds with her absence. 

I have now^ told all I can within the space allotted 
me of the Angel whose presence made earth seem 
like heaven for the space of seven short months. I 
have striven to withhold whatever concerns anyone 
else besides Irene and I, and in w^hat I have said I 
have been as truthful and earnest as is in my power. 
The end of the story would be entirely lost if the 
situations were not such as arise in everybody's life 
for at the same time that I raise this monument to my 
little lady love I want to call the attention of my 
younger readers to the traits of character that more 
than any others inspire happiness, poetry and love. 

Ten years ago I wrote 

THE LAND OF THE EISING SUN. 
They may talk of the West, of the wild woolly West> 

AVith its valleys and mountains of gold, 
Where the bear and the beaver alone can molest 

The miner who digs in its mould ; 
Yet in spite of its wonders, its wealth, and its weald,. 

E'en though they be ten times increased, 
To my sad aching heart, they can never impart 

The joys that were mine in the East. 

It was there that I first saw^ the light of the day^ 
And when boyhood upon me had crept, 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 261 

Where I rambled and gamboled , or, tired out with play, 

On pillows of innocence slept ; 
Where in youth, somew^hat sobered, in book lore I 

To find out its treasures and worth, [delved 

Or in social debate with companions sedate, 

On subjects abstruse have held forth. 

It was there that young Cupid discovered my heart, 
And despite all my struggles and wiles 

Sent with unerring aim his most dangerous dart, — 
_ For Vve been ever since in his toils ; 

'Twas there, too, ambition first harrowed my brain, 
And before I w^as even aware. 

Set me chisel in hand, carving futures in sand, 
And building up castles in air. 

It is there that my sister, kind hearted and true, 

Plods peacefully onward through life ; 
And 'tis there that my brother bade early adieu 

To earth's pleasure and passion and strife ; 
It is there 'neath the sod, all oblivious of care. 

That my father and mother lie low, 
While the grass o'er their graves, in the breeze gently 

And beckons wherever I go, [waves, 

Though to far foreign climes my fleet fate I pursue, 

Yet my thoughts ever backward do roam, 
And I often recall my last lingering adieu 

To the friends in that dear distant home ; 
And I sigh for a time which will certainly come. 

When my longings and wanderings have ceased ; 
Then its thither I'll fly, there to settle and die, 

T^ear ^Y dear native home in the East. 



262 SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 

In the burying ground of a Northern city there is a 
granite monument erected by my only sister and 
myself upon which is cut : 

Here 'iieath the sod oblivious though we weep 

A Father, Mother and a Brother sleep: 

Nor blame nor question th' inevitable frost 

If all too quickly their comradeship was lost ; 

The mystery of Death who curiously would brave 

Must first their loved ones meet beyond the silent grave. 

As may be imagined from both these quotations I 
would fain have had my wife lying in the same lot 
as my father and mother so that when it came my 
turn to cross the divide I might be laid to sleep with 
my parents as well as my wife close by my side. She 
however had many times expressed a love for the 
South that was unmistakable: and while she was 
ready during life to travel with me to the ends of the 
earth, still when she came to die she had several 
times mentioned Florida as her choice for a last rest- 
ing place. Such a wish I could not disregard and it 
was a pleasure to have a burial place prepared for us 
both in the State she so loyally loved. 

There is consequently a little plot in Lakeside 
Cemetery within sight of Lake Worth and, when the 
surf is high, within ear shot of old Atlantic where lie 
all that is mortal of the subject of this sketch. At 
one side of the lot blooms a Tree of Paradise and at 
the other side a Tree of Life. Two hybiscus bushes 
grow at opposite corners at the foot while crotons, 
geraneums, jessamine and coral plants are planted 
promiscuously in between the trees. The plot is 



SONNETS AND LOVE SONGS. 263 

planted with Bermuda grass except that a row of 
violets on either side separate the grass from the 
grave. Down the center of the grave is a row of pink 
and white vincas, and a white marble stone marks the 
head. On the tablet appears the inscription : 

''Irene Currie. 1873— 1901. '' 
w^hile on one of the bases is inscribed some lines 
recalling her Christmas present and its accompanying 
injunction to me. The verse I quote as a finale to 
this memoir and to the volume that she so oftentimes 
urged me to publish. And may all who have read 
thus far and who have loved the character I have 
tried to describe hear with me the message that is 
contained in the concluding line : 

Though her body lies here from the funeral pyre 
Her spirit has joined the invisible choir ; 
Through the silence soft melodies stealthily come : 
"Live nobly and proudly 1^11 w^elcome you Home.'' 



OCT 31 1902 



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